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The more interesting the 9-to-5 work is, the more it takes away from my real work, which is writing.

I'm really such a bumbler! Writing fiction is like arranging furniture in a dark room. I can't see what I'm doing. I grope for the right words. I bump against the wrong words and stumble and stub my toe and curse and keep trying to guess what belongs in the space.

I've never been a very prolific person, so when creativity flows, it flows. I find myself scribbling on little notepads and pieces of loose paper, which results in a very small portion of my writings to ever show up in true form.

It takes a lot of energy and a lot of neurosis to write a novel. If you were really sensible, you'd do something else.

The one thing that makes writing a better pastime than reading is that you can make things turn out the way you want in the end!

If you're actually allowing your creative part to control your writing rather than a more commercial instinct or motive, then you'll find that all sorts of interesting things will bubble up to the surface.

'Shun security,' I advise aspiring novelists when they complain to me that they are stuck. 'Get disoriented. Maybe your agonizing writing block isn't agonizing enough. Your enemy is comfort.'

Before you can write a novel you have to have a number of ideas that come together. One idea is not enough.

Novel-writing is a bit like deception. You lie as little as you possibly can. That's the way I do it, anyway.