“... but some say that reality is what happens inside a writer's head, and it is fiction which takes place outside it.”

“Television and cinema were all very well, but these stories happened to other people. The stories I found in books happened inside my head. I was, in some way, there.It's the magic of fiction: you take the words and you build them into worlds.”

“If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place. Primary reality is within; secondary reality without.”

“Fiction is an act of willfulness, a deliberate effort to reconcile, to rearrange, to reconstitute nothing short of reality itself. Even among the most reluctant and doubtful of writers, this willingfulness must emerge. Being a writer means taking the leap from listening to saying, 'Listen to me'.”

“Writers of fiction embellish reality almost without knowing it.”

“And when there are enough outsiders together in one place, a mystic osmosis takes place and you're inside.”