I know a lot of people in the city, at all levels, horizontally and vertically - and that to me is a privilege, to me as a person but also a writer. I've dined with billionaires, and I play soccer with busboys.

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

Time does nothing but hand you down shabbier and older things.

It was always clear to me that I would have to earn my readers, some I would have to find, some to create.

Chicago has very few public spaces where people are encouraged to get together. It's partly to prevent riots, and also to segregate a city with a history of racial segregation.

I cannot think of a country in which I would be happy with the government and dominant ideology and available propaganda.

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