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

There's no connection between consumption of art and moral stamina at all.

People will always tell stories. The publishing industry might vanish, but not stories.

The people who listened to rock 'n' roll, I thought, were bound together against the people who didn't listen to rock 'n' roll. That, of course, didn't work at all. Your taste in rock 'n' roll does not say anything about you, morally or otherwise.

There are many things I think about that never get to the point of becoming serious. In other words, I try to talk myself out of writing, sometimes for many years, and when I run out of arguments, I write.

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.

There are moments in life when it is all turned inside out--what is real becomes unreal, what is unreal becomes tangible, and all your levelheaded efforts to keep a tight ontological control are rendered silly and indulgent.