I always knew writing a novel was a great thing.
You can find my book at your favorite bookstore, and if it isn't there, find a new favorite.
Publishing is the final step in making a book; if I was afraid to publish one, I wouldn't write it in the first place.
I'm a competent novelist. I'm getting better. But I'm a really good short story writer.
I've had a lot of very positive feedback about those stories, and seem to have struck upon something that most people feel. I can also tap dance, and don't know many other authors who can.
I do think novels are overlooked. I did write one some years ago that I think is quite good, called 'The End of the Story,' not to blow my own horn.
At least I hope - that the fiction I've written so far has flaws but has mostly been successful.
I was never confident about finishing a book, but friends encouraged me. When I finished my first book, it was accepted by a publisher right away and became an instant bestseller. One male critic called it the most shocking book he ever read.
I'm writing. The pages are starting to stack up. My morale is improving the more I feel like a writer.
I know how to write fiction well.
I have more to say than Hemingway, and God knows, I say it better than Faulkner.
I have the most loyal readers in the world.
I started out very quiet and I beat Mr. Turgenev. Then I trained hard and I beat Mr. de Maupassant. I've fought two draws with Mr. Stendhal, and I think I had an edge in the last one. But nobody's going to get me in any ring with Mr. Tolstoy unless I'm crazy or I keep getting better.
As far as which writers embody this form of gentle power - Tobias Wolff, for sure. His persona and his writing both share an easy, capacious confidence that says he has faith in his readers.
I'm proud of what I write and feel endorsed by my readers.
I believe my voice is pretty much the same. I've written 75 books, so I'm better at it now than I was earlier in my career.
After 'Where the Wild Things Are,' I guess I felt more confident as a writer.
I'm always really comfortable writing strong, smart ladies. That's kind of my bailiwick.
I can write better than anybody who can write faster, and I can write faster than anybody who can write better.
I am not a total, complete nitwit when it comes to selling books. I promise you there will be unexpected things. Some of them I don't know yet. She's writing it all herself.
It took me six novels before I felt confident of my voice as a writer.
I reach my readers regardless of what the critics have written.
An author arrives at a good style when his language performs what is required of it without shyness.
I might not write fiction in the literary sense. But I write very well. My characters are good. My dialogue is good. And my stories are really involving.
Having 'The Expats' not be 'wholesale-y' rejected by the world made it possible for me to write the second book and have a publisher buy it before it was entirely written. And it made it easier for me and my publisher to get 'The Accident' out into the world without trying to convince people to pay attention to it the way you do for a first novel.
