In books I have traveled, not only to other worlds but into my own. I learned who I was and who I wanted to be, what I might aspire to, and what I might dare to dream about my world and myself.

The clearest explanation for the failure of any marriage is that the two people are incompatible; that is, that one is male and the other female.

Uncontrollable consumerism has become a watchword of our culture despite regular and compelling calls for its end. The United States has more malls than high schools; Americans spend more time shopping than reading. ... Some of the most insightful writing about the American character over the nation's history has been about neither freedom nor democracy but about the crazed impulse to acquire things.

I've always had a certain facility with words.

You write to suit some sense in yourself and trust that that will resonate with a certain wider readership.

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

I really feel like I'm a liberal because I'm a Catholic, because I took the words of the New Testament to heart.