On autobiography:
“There are things I know about having had that experience, but I don’t think that’s quite the same as writing autobiographically. I used what I knew.“
“You can get a pretty good idea of what an author is like from a thriller or a science fiction novel. There’s going to be politics in there; there’s going to be a sense of humor or a lack of sense of humor; there’s going to be warmth or not. You’re always going to reveal yourself through your writing. It’s impossible not to.”
On humor:
“It seems to me there’s probably nothing you can’t do in a funny book that a heartbreaking book is doing. You can write about exactly the same stuff. You just try not to deny people hope and enjoyment at the same time.”
“Every book is demanding to be read in someone’s leisure time. Even if you’re writing a biography of Stalin, there is a sense in which you have to craft it and make it as readable as you can.”
On screenwriting:
“It’s comparable, and you can feel that you’ve done a pretty good draft and be pleased with it. The way in which it’s not comparable is in the end it’s nothing to do with you; whereas writing, everything is you. If something gets published, it’s your work. Maybe an editor has helped you, but they couldn’t really say it was their work. In a movie, the words are just a starting-off point. The part that people are actually interested in is everything that comes after that, as in actors and directors”
Read the interview here.
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