Ordinary parties, he thought, were subtle games of sexual and social badminton.

I find it satisfying and intellectually stimulating to work with the intensity, brevity, balance and word play of the short story.

If you are looking for smart judging based on merit, skip the Academy Awards next year and pay attention to the Independent Spirit Awards.

And I think that's important, to know how the water's gone over the dam before you start to describe it. It helps to have been over the dam yourself.

Walking on the land or digging in the fine soil I am intensely aware that time quivers slightly, changes occurring in imperceptible and minute ways, accumulating so subtly that they seem not to exist. Yet the tiny shifts in everything--cell replication, the rain of dust motes, lengthening hair, wind-pushed rocks--press inexorably on and on.

I would rather be dead than not read

I think it's important to leave spaces in a story for readers to fill in from their own experience.