There are studies that have shown that we make decisions, ethical and otherwise, based on the way we imagine ourselves as characters in the stories of our lives. In other words, if we imagine ourselves brave or crazy or open, we're more likely to make decisions in a given situation based on how we imagine ourselves, whatever the facts may be.

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

You devise ways to tell a story that complies with your sensibility. Style and method are really extensions of your present sensibility.

When I found myself in the U.S., and the war was at full swing in Bosnia, I read for survival - it was a means of thought resuscitation.

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.

We, as writers, have to figure out a way to create a consciousness in language. It's crazy even to attempt to do that.

Nobody deserves death, yet everybody gets it.