Projecting yourself until everything is talking about you is, of course, a self-flattering form of self-pity

I cannot stand that whole game of confession, that is: Here I have sinned, now I'm confessing my sins, and describing my path of sin and then in the act of confession I beg for your forgiveness and redemption.

Arabs are a complete abstraction in the propaganda world and all the death and destruction is completely unreal to Americans.

I'm bright, but there are lots of bright writers and people everywhere. In no way, at no point do I think I'm better than them.

I'll take any life in which I can make choices and have agency, and America is not a bad place for all that.

I like the idea of a book being a democratic space which readers enter, carrying their own thoughts, and participate in a conversation, or experience of grace.

I'm not nervous if I think about something for nine years and then I don't write it. Even if it fades it doesn't concern me. It'll come back if it's worth it.