When I write a novel, I have what I think of as an icon that helps get me into the world of the book.

... It was the idea of facing a future skimming the surface of life, winging my way in and out of other people's crises, confusions, and passages, engaging them enough to get the story, but never enough to be indelibly touched by what I had seen or heard.

I sometimes think that courage is the thing that you need more than any other thing. It's fear that cripples us. It's fear that accounts for racism, it's fear that accounts for sexism, for xenophobia.

When children are small, parents should run their lives and not the other way around.

I think anyone who comes upon a Nautilus machine suddenly will agree with me that its prototype was clearly invented at some time in history when torture was considered a reasonable alternative to diplomacy.

The truth about your own life is not always easy to accept, and sometimes hasn't even occurred to you.

I can't think of anything to write about except families. They are a metaphor for every other part of society.