You can't be a good person when you're writing and a bad person to your husband or a bad friend. You can't be a jerk in order to be a good writer. You can't say, "I'm too busy writing to be political." You are one person. You are the same person in every aspect of your life, and you have to be a responsible person in every aspect of your life.

Society was nothing but a long, dull dinner party conversation in which one was forced to speak to one's partner on both the left and the right.

One must not be shy where language is concerned.

Keeping people safe is a story we tell ourselves.

I believe that, more than anything else, this grief of constantly having to face down our own inadequacies is what keeps people from being writers. Forgiveness, therefore, is key. I can't write the book I want to write, but I can and will write the book I am capable of writing. Again and again throughout the course of my life I will forgive myself.

You should not have assault rifles in your home.

We have different kinds of intimacy with many, many people. I'm disappointed by well-written novels that only deal with two or three people.