“Every character in a story, I thought when I had folded up the phone, has both a purpose and a secret purpose.”

“Theres nothing cruel about a vampire or a parasite, she said.”

“And youre disappointed in the story. I know you wanted a love story.”

“I thought you could build a story that would function as a machine or else a complex of machines, each one moving separately, yet part of a process that ultimately would produce an emotion or a seq...”

“And you’re disappointed in the story. I know you wanted a love story.”

“The heroine might be unsure. And the reader. But I don’t think the author should be.”

“Being a writer all boils down to this: It's you, in a chair, staring at a page. And you're either going to stay in that chair until words are written, or you're going to give up and walk away. The ...”

“When male authors write love stories, the heroine tends to end up dead.”

“Im likely to stay here, pen in hand, until dusk comes and my writing melts into the twilight.”

“It has been said that Shakespeare, the great delineator of human character, has failed in distinguishing his principal womenand that such as he meant to be amiable are all equally gentle and good. ...”

“People who love do the impossible all the time.”

“Protector and destroyer were two sides of the same coin. Who knew which one would come out in a toss-up?”