I just want to be told a story, and I want to believe I'm living that story, and I don't give a thought to influences or method or any other writerly concerns

The hardest novel to write was Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant.

There is no true life. Your true life is the one you end up with, whatever it may be. You just do the best you can with what you've got.

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.

While armchair travelers dream of going places, traveling armchairs dream of staying put.

The very thing that attracts you to someone can end up putting you off.

Something was wrong with a world where people came and went so easily.