It seems to me that since I've had children, I've grown richer and deeper. They may have slowed down my writing for a while, but when I did write, I had more of a self to speak from.

The one ironclad rule is that I have to try. I have to walk into my writing room and pick up my pen every weekday morning.

My family can always tell when I'm well into a novel because the meals get very crummy.

The hardest novel to write was Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant.

I don't type [when I write] because . . . I often have the feeling that everything flows directly from my right hand.

But what I hope for from a book - either one that I write or one that I read - is transparency. I want the story to shine through. I don't want to think of the writer.

I would advise any beginning writer to write the first drafts as if no one else will ever read them - without a thought about publication - and only in the last draft to consider how the work will look from the outside.

I didn't really choose to write; I more or less fell into it.

I'm too shy for personal appearances, and I've found out that anytime I talk about my writing, I can't do any writing for many weeks afterward.