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I think it's easier to be cynical. I think the temptation, often, among writers is to write about anything other than real, true, deep feelings.

It's often been said that I'm an extremely depressing, cynical writer. I've never known what to make of that.

I like to think of myself as an unmediated novelist - or perhaps a national novelist.

I saw novelists as being admirable people and I thought... I thought... maybe, one day, I could be one of them.

I think self-doubt, as grim as it can be, makes me a better writer. Stasis and hubris would probably be the death knell for my career.

Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.

I thought I would write non-fiction. I thought I would enter the New York literary scene as copy editor, work my way up, and then write my own books.

I couldn't be a writer without hope. I think I became a writer because I'm pretty optimistic.

I don't write literary fiction - I write books that are entertaining, but are also, I hope, well-constructed and thoughtful and funny and have things to say about men and women and families and children and life in America today.

I view myself as a fiction writer who just happens to write nonfiction. I think I look at the world through a fiction-writer's eyes.