Not until the final draft do I force myself to remember that I'm going to have to think about how it will affect other people.

I would advise any beginning writer to write the first drafts as if no one else will ever read them - without a thought about publication - and only in the last draft to consider how the work will look from the outside.

I never think about the actual process of writing. I suppose I have a superstition about examining it too closely.

I'm an optimist about other people. I'm not an optimist about myself.

I do write long, long character notes - family background, history, details of appearance - much more than will ever appear in the novel. I think this is what lifts a book from that early calculated, artificial stage.

I'm not a wimpy kid at all. I don't care what other people think - I only care what I think about myself.