Look at me. My concerns-are they spiritual, do you think, or carnal? Come on. We've read our Shakespeare.

I could claim any number of high-flown reasons for writing, just as you can explain certain dogs behavior... But maybe, it’s that they’re dog, and that’s what dogs do.

There’s so much I can’t read because I get so exasperated. Someone starts describing the character boarding the plane and pulling the seat back. And I just want to say, Babe, I have been downtown. I have been up in a plane. Give me some credit.

Just because you have stopped sinking doesn't mean you're not still underwater.

consolation is a beautiful word. everyone skins his knee-that doesnt make yours hurt anyless.

He wondered how we know that what happens to us isn't good.

I know when a story is finished when there is not a single thing more I can think to do to it. And since I know at the start what the last line will be, I know when I've reached that point as logically as I can that it's finished. As for the rewriting-it's not foolproof, of course, but if you're honest about having thought of every possibility and you still come back to what you have, what more can you do?