Ideas are all around me. If I wasn’t interested in them myself, I don’t think anyone else would be either.
I don’t believe in writing anything that I don’t know about or haven’t researched about personally. I like to transport the reader to places, and in order to do that I have to do the research.
The easier you make it look, the more difficult it is. Creating characters out of nothing, and making them interesting – and that’s another advice I would give to writers.
I write about real people in disguise. If anything, my characters are toned down-the truth is much more bizarre.
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 write about the American dream: if you set your mind to do something, you can do it. My fans know they’re getting the real thing.
My books flow. People say they pick them up and they can’t put them down. It’s because when I’m writing them I pick my pen up and I cannot put my pen down.
Agents are essential, because publishers will not read unsolicited manuscripts.
I have this theory that people in Hollywood don’t read. They read ‘Vanity Fair’ and then consider themselves terribly well read. I think I can basically write about anybody without getting caught.
I am currently talking to one of the studios about making American Star as a TV series.
Men are cheaters. Women are not to be trusted. And most people are dumb.
Love does not appear with any warning signs. You fall into it as if pushed from a high diving board.
Your whole life is ahead of you. Don’t you ever forget that.
Viagra is a drug, just like cocaine. It can cause you to become addicted.
The biggest critics of my books are the people who never read them.
I have considered rap music stars, and there is one in my new book, Lovers and Players, and there is also a hip-hop music mogul who I think you will like a lot.
I know that I am very popular in Holland, in fact I have visited Amsterdam several times to publicize my books. I have a great publisher in Holland and they have published all of my books in Dutch.
I wake up in the morning and I still have a passion for what I do, and I’ll be doing it when I’m 105, I’ll be scribbling away. If it was 100 years ago I’d be sitting by the campfire, saying, “Have I got a story to tell you.”
I woke up last night and thought: ‘I must call somebody in my next novel Casablanca.’ It’s such a great name. I don’t want to call anybody Fred or Jane or Susan, so when three people get into bed together, you don’t know who they are.
I’m a storyteller; I write what I want to read.