I Am Very Fond Of Edith Wharton.

I Read Mostly Fiction, A Lot Of 19th-century Novels.

Fear Could Paralyse. Action Was The Antidote.

I Went And Looked At One Of These Great Cathedrals One Day, And I Was Blown Away By It. From There I Became Interested In How Cathedrals Were Built, And From There I Became Interested In The Society That Built The Medieval Cathedral. It Occurred To Me At Some Point That The Story Of The Building Of A Cathedral Could Be A Great Popular Novel.

The Research Is The Easiest. The Outline Is The Most Fun. The First Draft Is The Hardest, Because Every Word Of The Outline Has To Be Fleshed Out. The Rewrite Is Very Satisfying.

I Aim To Be Translucent, So You Don't Notice The Words, Just Their Meaning. I Haven't Much Insight Into People's Motivations.