People gave me such a bad time about wanting a baby. I didn't want a baby, and I still don't. I wanted a dog.

I used to do everything to keep a wall up around myself and keep my life quiet so that I could write.

Reading fiction not only develops our imagination and creativity, it gives us the skills to be alone. It gives us the ability to feel empathy for people we've never met, living lives we couldn't possibly experience for ourselves, because the book puts us inside the character's skin.

It's easier to love a woman when you can't understand a word she's saying.

It is said the sesta is one of the only gifts the Europeans brought to South America, but I imagine the Brazilians could have figured out how to sleep in the afternoon without having to endure centuries of murder and enslavement.

Staying within the world of a novel gives us the ability to be quiet and alone, two skills that are disappearing faster than the polar icecaps.

When I wrote nonfiction, my best work was the really personal stuff.