I love to read nonfiction and memoir, but I'm mostly interested in the piece of writing more than the person.

This is true in other fields, too, that a legal aid lawyer gets a whole lot less money than a Hollywood lawyer who handles the estates of celebrities. Maybe the legal aid lawyer is doing something better, though, and maybe they're happier. It's not a completely unheard of idea, but I do think we have to remind ourselves at times to look for satisfaction in other ways.

We still have so many cultures in which people are imprisoned and whipped and killed for writing what they think.

I think a day in your life on which nothing bad happens may be a wonderful day, but it probably isn't going to be the basis of a story.

Sometimes it's interesting to see what people who have too much control need to do to write freely.

Teaching is very important to me, and it has become more important as I get older.

Whoever would write books? It's suffering as well as greatly satisfying. And certainly there's suffering in the sense that you don't know for a long time how to do it.