I've always thought sleep was a wonderful invention. Not that being awake isn't nice too, of course. But when I get up in the morning, I think, boy, only fourteen more hours and I can be back to sleep again ... And I never dream, because it distracts my mind from pure sleeping.

I save the best of myself for novels, and I believe it shows

When you have children, you're obligated to live.

Mostly it's lies, writing novels. You set out to tell an untrue story and you try to make it believable, even to yourself. Which calls for details; any good lie does.

I love to think about chance - about how one little overheard word, one pebble in a shoe, can change the universe.

But I don't think people take bad advice. They've got intuition too, you know. In fact I'd be surprised if they take any advice at all.

Now peculiar scraps of knowledge were stuck to him like lint from all his jobs.