For All That Being A Parent Is

With A Time-based Medium Like Theater Or Film, You Can't Have The Audience Getting Restless In Their Seats. They're Stuck There On Their Bums; You Have To Pay Enormous Attention To Pace And You Can't Lose Your Way.

I Actually Tried To Think Of The Story [room] In Gender-neutral Terms At First And Said To Myself, "ok, Would This Work If It Were A Man?" Well No, You Can't Make A Man Pregnant, So It's Got To Be A Woman.

The Paradox Of Publicity Is That Even As We Do It, We Know It's Killing Off The Chance Of Another Reader Happening Across Our Book In The Ideal State Of Innocence.

I'm Very Interested In How Idealistic Young People Can Get Caught Up In All Sorts Of Systems Of Extreme Belief, You Know, Whether It's Cults Or Whether It's Suicide Bombers.

Some Writers Can Produce Marvelous Plots Without Planning It Out, But I Can't. In Particular I Need To Know The Structure Of A Novel: What's Going To Happen In Each Chapter And Each Scene.