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Novels are longer than life.

But novels are never about what they are about; that is, there is always deeper, or more general, significance. The author may not be aware of this till she is pretty far along with it.

A novel is about people.

A novel is balanced between a few true impressions and the multitude of false ones that make up most of what we call life.

A novel is a great act of passion and intellect, carpentry and largess. From the very beginning, I wrote to explain my own life to myself, and I invited readers who chose to make the journey with me to join me on the high wire.

I think of novels as houses. You live in them over the course of a long period, both as a reader and as a writer.

My novels are high concept. I guess big ideas interest me more than, say, the minutiae of domestic life.

The interesting thing about fiction from a writer's standpoint is that the characters come to life within you. And yet who are they and where are they? They seem to have as much or more vitality and complexity as the people around you.

I always tell my students, 'If you walk around with your eyes and ears open, you can't possibly live long enough to write all the novels you'll encounter.'