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I maintain that if you're a novelist and you go into an art museum, you'll come out a better novelist. And if you paint a picture for an hour you're a better actor at the end of it.

Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book, If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for.

If I had to rank my skills, I have a long way to go before I can write a good graphic novel.

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.

Sometimes I ask myself if writing novels is even respectable.

Many writers are afraid of writing something bad, so they don't try or give up when their efforts don't lead to a masterpiece right away. If you work at it, you will improve.

If you become a creative writer with the idea that you are going to make a whole lot of money, then maybe this isn't the best choice for you.

It's not like being a writer is a very lucrative career, but you know, you just know when you've found what you're really meant to do.

But if you have a point of view and you're an artist or a writer, it's kind of crazy to not take advantage of that, especially if you can do something that's entertaining as well. I've done a number of things like that over the years.

Write a story a great writer would write. Because part of becoming an artist is pushing through all the disbelief of those around you, deciding that you are a writer when you have no idea what a plot is or whether what you've written is any good, or anything.