“My characters surprise me constantly. My characters are like my friends - I can give them advice, but they don't have to take it. If your characters are real, then they surprise you, just like real people.”

“As far as my characters doing what I want them to, I'm afraid I'm not a real writer like the rest of you because I can manage to force them into just about anything. One day I hope my characters lead me around by the nose, talking to me and yelling NO! Or YES! Whatever the case may be. However, until then, I'll keep railroading their asses.”

“My characters are quite as real to me as so-called real people; which is one reason why I'm not subject to what is known as loneliness. I have plenty of company.”

“I would like to carve my novel in a piece of wood. My characters—I would like to have them heavier, more three-dimensional ... My characters have a profession, have characteristics; you know their age, their family situation, and everything. But I try to make each one of those characters heavy, like a statue, and to be the brother of everybody in the world.”

“Sometimes I don't know whether I'm real or whether I'm a character in one of my novels.”

“Like all of my friends, she's a lousy judge of character.”