“A book is never, ever finished. You simply get to a point where you and your editor are reasonably happy with how it is and you go with that. Left to our own devices, a writer would endlessly fiddle with a book, changing little thing after little thing.”

“Imagine that you are dying. If you had a terminal disease would you ­finish this book? Why not? The thing that annoys this 10-weeks-to-live self is the thing that is wrong with the book. So change it. Stop arguing with yourself. Change it. See? Easy. And no one had to die.”

“Not every classic book was the best thing ever. Each book has flaws, and it’s up to writers to change things.”

“You can't get where you're going unless you remember where you came from. Who you are and what you are is the only thing you own. Never lose it, and never…ever…surrender!”

“Books say: She did this because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren't. I'm not surprised some people prefer books. Books make sense of life. The only problem is that the lives they make sense of are other people's lives, never your own.”

“When your own father never, ever laughs at you, not even when your little twisted movements are unbearably cute, when there's never a little hidden snicker at the edge of his lips after you risk a question that exposes the very marrow of your soul, then perhaps certain spiritual muscles within you are given a chance to develop, and sometimes to a point where no one can overpower them.”