It is my belief that we as human beings have a need to tell stories - I think it's evolutionary. So you can think of the short story as a literary form, or you can instead think of stories.

Your nightmares follow you like a shadow, forever.

I do have a sense of displacement as constant instability — the uninterrupted existence of everything that I love and care about is not guaranteed at all. I wait for catastrophes.

In Bosnian, there's no distinction in literature between fiction and nonfiction; there's no word describing that.

I don't think that everyone should have a philosophical answer to any given question. There are things that need to be done.

I don't like having a teaching job - office hours and conferences and committees and bosses and all that - but I tend to enjoy teaching, and I design the course in such a way that there'll be pleasure in that.

Our daughter was born in Chicago, and she's already showing it. The temperature has to be approaching zero for her to wear a hat.