Anyone who has spent a few nights in a tent during a storm can tell you: The world doesn't care all that much if you live or die.

My sister-in-law is a painter, and I'll say, how long did it take you to paint that painting. She'll say, It took me maybe three days, but it took me all my life to get the skills to paint that painting.

I found my first novel difficult. I don't want to make it sound like it's any more difficult than driving a cab or going to any other job, but there are so many opportunities for self-doubt, that you just kind of need to soldier on.

Only Numbers. Pure math. You have to accustom yourself to thinking that way.

I always told my dad I'd play professional football.

WWII is something contemporary readers already know a lot about. If our schools are doing their jobs, they know about the invasion of Normandy, the Hitler Youth, the Holocaust, and at least a few of the horrors of the Eastern Front.

My preference is for prose with more silence in it, language that contains more pockets of strangeness.