Anne Tyler

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 consciously try to end my novels at a point where I won't have to wonder about my characters ever again. ”

I think it must be very hard to be one of the new young writers who are urged to put themselves forward when it may be the last thing on earth they'd be good at. ”

Ever consider what pets must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul - chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on earth! ”

She worded it a bit strongly, but I do find myself more and more struck by the differences between the sexes. To put it another way: All marriages are mixed marriages. ”

The Amateur Marriage grew out of the reflection that of all the opportunities to show differences in character, surely an unhappy marriage must be the richest. ”

I expect that any day now, I will have said all I have to say; I'll have used up all my characters, and then I'll be free to get on with my real life. ”

In real life I avoid all parties altogether, but on paper I can mingle with the best of them. ”

It seems to me that good novels celebrate the mystery in ordinary life, and summing it all up in psychological terms strips the mystery away. ”

I just want to be told a story, and I want to believe I'm living that story, and I don't give a thought to influences or method or any other writerly concerns. ”