Author

I tend not to write books that are really, really long, and I'm also a pretty fast writer.

I tend not to write books that are really, really long, and I'm also a pretty fast writer.

If I could visit dead authors, I'd head right over to E. B. White, though I'm so in awe of him I'd probably just sit at his feet and weep. He's the master of clarity, of understated humor, of palatable political conviction.

I know that sometimes it happens that a novelist is embarrassed about their early works. For me, it's the opposite: I believe 'Durable Goods' is the best thing I've written.

You need a place to work that works for you, and you need people to understand that when you are writing, you are doing a rarefied type of brain surgery and therefore should not be subject to a million random interruptions.

I do think that there's an art form to parenting, and I have nothing but admiration for those who do it well.

I think Chicago is the best city in the country, hands down, but I don't like the winter there anymore.

In this wide world, I don't think that there's just one person for any of us. I think we look until we find one that feels right, and oftentimes, it works out just fine.

I remember, as a child, wanting all the time to buy my parents presents. I stood around forlornly in fancy shops, unable to afford a single thing.

The process is different for every book, but there are similarities. I always draw from the inside out. I don't plot them ahead of time, and I'm always surprised by things that happen in my books.

I suppose writing nonfiction did prepare me for writing fiction. Whenever you write anything, you're honing your skills for writing anything else.

When you have that deep kind of hunger that is part longing, what's better to eat than the best apple pie? Or the best potato salad and guacamole? Or the best deviled eggs and crab cakes and white chocolate raspberry pie?

I don't have a medicine cabinet.

My favorite splurge is homemade chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream or a Sausage McMuffin with egg or scalloped potatoes or turkey yanked right off the carcass and dipped in gravy or See's chocolate.

Not being as self-contained as men, we need to share things: It's almost as though you only know what you feel about things after you share them with a woman.

You should not pay too much attention to what anyone tells you, including me. It's very, very important to follow your own map.

I think it's harder - much harder - to be a good parent than to write a book.

I look to find the heart and soul of people, of my characters. I look for the truth of them and the truths about life that are presented through them.

We're not just writers; we're readers probably more than anything else. That's how you learn how to write and how you learn to appreciate good writing: by reading.

When I look at my own work, I see love, loss, and loneliness. Part of it might be that I was an army brat. I moved around all the time. There was a sense of nothing being permanent.