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I like to think that I am telling a story rather than writing it.

I actually feel that the different kinds of stories come out of different parts of my brain.

Stories are hard. I have friends who knock out stories on a weekly or monthly basis, like they're running on medicinal-strength Updike. But for me a story is as daunting a prospect as a novel.

'The Bone Season' is violent. There's sex. My little brother keeps asking to read it, and he's 9, so I'm like, 'No, it's not happening.'

Neurologists say that our brains are programmed much more for stories than for abstract ideas. Tales with a little drama are remembered far longer than any slide crammed with analytics.

I think we think in terms of stories.

We all have stories we're living and telling ourselves.

I'm consistently telling stories about the value of the human condition and connectedness and things like that.

There is something in human beings that loves stories.

I always take a story that's kind of out there, like an urban myth. I take some possibility that people imagine, that they are familiar with, and try to turn it into a story.