For a man to know what he has when he had it, that is what makes him a fortunate man.

I think the best vacation is the one that relieves me of my own life for a while and then makes me long for it again.

That's the way I work. I get it all plotted in my mind, and then I write it down.

Some people need a huge amount of attention, and they are worthy of that attention, and they're still exhausting.

Sometimes not having any idea where we’re going works out better than we could possibly have imagined.

Whenever I saw her, I felt like I had been living in another country, doing moderately well in another language, and then she showed up speaking English and suddenly I could speak with all the complexity and nuance that I hadn't realized was gone. With Lucy I was a native speaker.

If what we want to do is promote reading and writing and publishing and making sure this is a business that keeps going - because it is a business! It's not just an art - then we have to take responsibility. I get sort of crazy and frothy when I think about this. It really matters.