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Writers shouldn't have lives that are interesting. It gets in the way of your work.

Life sometimes gets in the way of writing.

For me, writing has always come out of living a fairly to-the-bone kind of life, just really being present to a lot of life. The writing has been really a byproduct of that.

There's always this sense of incredulity that writers feel, because they're usually living flat and ordinary lives, because they have to.

There comes a point when you're writing a novel when you're in it so deep that the life of the novel becomes more real to you than life itself. You have to write your way out of it; once you're there, it's too late to abandon.

It's a luxury being a writer, because all you ever think about is life.

Writers do draw inspiration from their own lives, which, quite frankly, might be more interesting than fiction.

Writing is a solitary endeavor, but not a lonely one. When you write, your world is populated by the characters you invent, and you feel those people filling your life.

However far fiction writers stray from their own lives and experiences - and I stray pretty far from mine - I think, ultimately, that we may be writing what we need to write in some way, albeit unconsciously.

Writing is making sense of life. You work your whole life and perhaps you've made sense of one small area.