Stewart O'Nan

I've always been a big reader.

When I'm writing, I try to have the mask of my character on as I'm walking through the world.

The story is always in service to the characters, and is only as long or short, or neat or ragged as it needs to be.

Most detective story readers are an educated audience and know there are only a certain number of plots. The interest lies in what the writer does with them.

Another thing that freaks me out is time. Time is like a book. You have a beginning, a middle and an end. It's just a cycle.

It is hardly surprising that women concentrate on the way they look instead of what is in their minds since not much has been put in their minds to begin with.