Writers have to be careful not to confuse personal attention with the attention that's going towards the book.

Romance dies hard, because its very nature is to want to live.

I think the deeper you go into questions, the deeper or more interesting the questions get. And I think that's the job of art.

Writers have to be careful not to confuse personal attention with the attention that's going towards the book.

Wanting to know absolutely what a story is about, and to be able to say it in a few sentences, is dangerous: it can lead us to wanting to possess a story as we possess a cup... A story can always break into pieces while it sits inside a book on a shelf; and, decades after we have read it even twenty times, it can open us up, by cut or caress, to a new truth.

I truly believe the art's larger than the artist. Who cares about John Steinbeck? I care about the Joad family.

People fascinate the hell out of me. I never get tired of watching people, listening to people. The best part is not getting up in front of people but meeting people.