I write and read with the assumption that literature contains knowledge of human experience that is not available otherwise.

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.

Chicago is not a bad place to live. But the usual story of immigration is the happy fulfillment of human potential in America that is not available anywhere else - it's propaganda, really. It's more complicated than that.

The beauty of literature - also its limit - is that it is inescapably personal, even if you're writing science fiction.

When I came to America, I was already a writer, already published in Bosnia. I was planning to go back, but I had no choice but to stay here after the civil war, so I enrolled at Northwestern in a master's program and studied American literature.

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

Everyone operates within their own domain and obviously those domains overlap to a great extent.