“Like all fiction, my lies are just my efforts to be truer than the truth.”

“The characters act for reasons that they cant control and, as readers, we have to believe in their motivations, their sense of choice and in the reality of their suffering, even though, deep down, ...”

“An unpublished writer should doubt themselves. They should constantly wonder whether what theyre creating has merit. And then, having doubted, they should take up their pen and see if they cant mak...”

“Publishers are businesses and I dont blame them for that. If they didnt make money by publishing books, there wouldnt be any books.”

“A novel must be judged on its merits, not on how hard the journey was to write it.”

“I dont see big subjects as separate from little ones. Yes, you could trudge through life with great human tragedies played out before your eyes without ever taking notice. Or you could see a univer...”

“Some experiences are universal. A girl is a girl whether she lives in West Omaha or Sweet Valley. Books are often far more than books.”

“A half-read book is a half-finished love affair.”

“The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,And all the sweet serenity of books”

“Sometimes two people have to fall apart, to realize how much they need to fall back together.”

“Good literature is one key to peace. When we stop reading each other, when we stop paying attention to each other's words and stories, we too easily oppose one another.”

“There is only one motive for writing a novel: to be published and read. To me there is no distinction between the mystery novel and the novel, only between good books and bad books. A good book tak...”

“Semua orang pernah patah hati. All you have to do is move on.”

“A novel is never anything but a philosophy expressed in images. And in a good novel the philosophy has disappeared into the images.”

“If you only write when youre inspired you may be a fairly decent poet, but youll never be a novelist because youre going to have to make your word count today and those words arent going to wait fo...”