On his process for writing novels:
I can't imagine what the first sentence is, I can't imagine where I want the reader to enter the story, if I don't know where the reader is going to leave the story. So once I know what the last thing the reader hears is, I can work my way backward, like following a roadmap in reverse.
A modern novelist of Dickensian tradition. Spotlight. Russia Today (January 24, 2009).
A modern novelist of Dickensian tradition
