I like to say that my mother had a very ordinary life. From the outside it didn't look like there was anything particularly special or wonderful about it, but when you watch somebody hold on to that life with both hands, it makes you think that life must be pretty damn good.

My most pronounced writing habit is trying not to write.

The truth is that when you're writing a novel you're really living in it; you're living in the house, and you're living in the town.

[In the aftermath of death] Small talk feels too small, big talk too enormous.

Don't ever confuse the two, your life and your work. The second is only part of the first.

The voices of conformity speak so loudly. Don't listen to them. No one does the right thing out of fear. If you ever utter the words, 'We've always done it that way,' I urge you to wash out your mouth with soap.

My father expected his first child to be a boy, and when it didn't turn out that way he didn't let the fact get in the way of a good story.