The world is always greater than your desires; plenty is never enough.

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 don't want your neurosurgeon to have doubts about the meaning of it all while he or she is operating on your brain.

I don't believe in inspiration. I write when I can't avoid writing anymore.

We, as writers, have to figure out a way to create a consciousness in language. It's crazy even to attempt to do 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 want to make money, and I would like to have a lot of money, but I still believe that the only reason to write is that somehow it will make something or somebody better.