I believe the first draft of a book — even a long one — should take no more than three months…Any longer and — for me, at least — the story begins to take on an odd foreign feel, like a dispatch from the Romanian Department of Public Affairs, or something broadcast on high-band shortwave duiring a period of severe sunspot activity.

Having someone who believes in you makes a lot of difference. They don't have to make speeches. Just believing is usually enough.

In spite of it all I didn't want to die.

Talent is a wonderful thing, but it won't carry a quitter.

For me writing has always been best when it's intimate, as sexy as skin on skin.

It's how we see the world that keeps the darkness beyond at bay. Keeps it from pouring through and devouring us. I think all of us might know that, way down deep.

Strong delusions travel like cold germs on a sneeze.

Everybody trusts a guy in a raincoat. I don't know why. It's just one of those mystery facts.