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I'm a language-oriented writer who proceeds sentence by sentence.

I work at the sentences. Many of the things people find distinctive about my writing, I think of as natural.

The only rule I have found to have any validity in writing is not to bore yourself.

It should consist of short, sharply focused sentences, each of which is a whole scene in itself.

I never leave a sentence or a paragraph until I'm satisfied with it.

I think with one exception I've never changed an opening sentence after a book was completed.

I like to believe that if you pay close attention to the sentences as they unfold, they will draw you in rather than pushing you away.

So usually even if you like a sentence or a story or something, it won't come out that way - it'll come out years later, and in a different way, and you don't really control that.

I believe if a sentence is to retain its strength over time, it needs to be carefully made.