There's something in psychology called the narrative paradigm, which essentially means that we think of our lives as stories in which we are the main characters.

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

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.

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.

A particular piece of music attaches itself to the piece I'm writing, and there is nothing else I can listen to. Every day I return to the same space to write, the music providing both the walls and the pictures on the walls.

There is a logic [to my reading], but I can't define it. I like reading impulsively. I collect books, I have a lot of them, but most of them I have not read yet. I'll read them when they call me from the shelf.

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