"You can't listen to what people say.  There are always going to be people telling you 'you can't do this,' or 'I don't like this.'  There are so many writers who have gotten 80,000 rejections and then suddenly they sell a book and it's a huge critical and commercial success.  So you never know.  Just keep writing."

"You always try to think in terms of what would be worse, what would be harder for these characters.  Because those are the moments when people really show their best selves.  Also, those are the things that people don't really talk about a lot, but they want to know about.  We're sort of afraid of it.  So as a writer, you go into those dark places, and I think that's what keeps the pages turning." 

"I don't think in terms of 'success' so much anymore.  Because I know how things can happen: You can have success, and then it can be taken away from you.  Then you can have it again.  So I just really focus more on the work.  I love to write, and that's what I'm going to keep on doing, no matter if I'm published again (or not published again)."

"I got published when I was in my 20s, and my first novel was a sensation.  And I thought, 'Oh, my God! It's going to be like this all the time!'  Then books two through eight were failures.  I had five different publishers.  Three of them went out of business.  Two of them did nothing for the book and wouldn't take my calls."