I gradually became aware that my interiority was inseparable from my exteriority, that the geography of my city was the geography of my soul.

I wish I could avoid the people who have threatened me. My favorite threat is that I will be thrown in the River Miljacka, which is at most knee-deep, with my feet bound in cement.

Memory narrativises itself.

My books have been published all over Europe. They read me there, and I want to read them back. I also spend a lot of time in Europe, often meeting writers, and I'm sick of apologizing for the embarrassing shortage of translations in America.

I long for, not a writer's retreat - I can write in any situation - but a reader's retreat.

I do believe - and I know I shouldn't - that art transcends money and success and any of that. You can still do it if you're not clinging to the notion of nobility.

Our daughter was born in Chicago, and she's already showing it. The temperature has to be approaching zero for her to wear a hat.