It is very difficult to live among people you love and hold back from offering them advice.

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

One sad thing about this world is that the acts that take the most out of you are usually the ones that people will never know about. (from 'Celestial Navigation')

He was wondering if there was some cryptic, cultish mark on his door that told all the crazy people he'd have trouble saying no.

I suspect that marriage is like parenthood: every last one of us is an amateur at it.

I do write long, long character notes - family background, history, details of appearance - much more than will ever appear in the novel. I think this is what lifts a book from that early calculated, artificial stage.

I didn't really choose to write; I more or less fell into it.