Only a few of us are going to be willing to break our own hearts by trading in the living beauty of imagination for the stark disappointment of words.

I was very influenced by The Magic Mountain. It's a book that had a huge impact on me. I loved that as a shape for a novel: put a bunch of people in a beautiful place, give them all tuberculosis, make them all stay in a fur sleeping bag for several years and see what happens.

You are always someones favorite unfolding story

When you get divorced and remarried, nobody gets discarded. Everybody is still there. Even if their storyline is not directly yours.

Home, bed, sleep, mother--who knew more beautiful words than these?

If you're trying to find out what's coming next, turn off everything you own that has an OFF switch and listen.

I can't write the book I want to write, but I can and will write the book I am capable of writing.