I'm a dilettante by temperament. I don't have any expectation.

I write and read with the assumption that literature contains knowledge of human experience that is not available otherwise.

To me, the solidarity of readers is far more important than the solidarity of writers, particularly since readers in fact find ways to connect over a book or books, whatever they may be.

It seemed that we loved each other better when there were large swaths of two continents between us. The daily work of love was often hard to perform at home.

You have to suspend thinking in narratives. The moment you are conscious of yourself the gap opens up. And in this gap, stories are generated.

In the olden days, a memoir was something written by Churchill and people like that, because they had a grand experience and considered it useful for future generations. And then it became what it became - a public purging in which other people have the chance to judge you and then forgive you, perhaps learning something from your sorry example.

It's difficult for me to understand how it was possible to live under the Bush regime for eight years and then just roll over and do other things.