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I've been at writing long enough now to know that every three or four books, I have to start a new direction.

But I've been at writing long enough now to know that every three or four books I have to start a new direction.

With each book you write you have to learn how to write that book - so every time, you have to start all over again.

I really strive to bring something new to each book. I don't want to write the same book over and over again.

I've started lots of books, but it's hard for me to finish them.

I always want to write something better than the last book.

Every book is like starting over again. I've written books every way possible - from using tight outlines to writing from the seat of my pants. Both ways work.

While I'm writing, I'm also the first reader, and I want to write a book where I'm excited about what happens next.

Each book I've done somehow finds its own unique form, a specific way it has to be written, and once I find it, I stick with it.

I write in a very peculiar way. I think about a book for 25 or 30 years in a kind of inchoate way, and at one point or another, I realize the book is ready to be written. I usually have a character, a first line, and general idea of what the book is going to be about.