[I remember going] to a hotel gym at six o'clock in the morning, and the television was on, and it's some drama in which two men have clearly kidnapped a woman. They're interrogating her, and they put a plastic bag over her head. They're suffocating her, and I'm thinking, It's six o'clock in the morning! Why does anybody need to see this? How can I find the off switch?

He used to say we all had a compass inside of us and what we needed to do was to find it and to follow it.

I read books I hate all the time, and I don't mention them or talk about them.

I love a large cast of characters. That's the way life is: it's flooded with people and we keep them all straight.

I can write for any magazine now, in any voice. I can do it in two hours, I could do it in my sleep, it's like writing a grocery list.

Why is it that we understand playing the cello will require work, but we attribute writing to the magic of inspiration?

I'm very comfortable writing.