In fact, one of the things that I really love about literary fiction is that it's one of the few kinds of writing that doesn't tell us what to think or what to buy or what to wear. We're surrounded by advertising.

How pointless life could be, what a foolish business of inventing things to love, just so you could dread losing them.

I'm never going to tell the reader what to believe; I'm going to examine these characters that believe different ways, and examine their motives.

Sugar, it's no parade but you'll get down the street one way or another, so you'd just as well throw your shoulders back and pick up the pace.

Write a nonfiction book, and be prepared for the legion of readers who are going to doubt your fact. But write a novel, and get ready for the world to assume every word is true.

I write every moment that is humanly possible. I write every day and every night. The only discipline I lack is the discipline is to quit.

Ah, the mysterious croak. Here today, gone tomorrow. It's the best reason I can think of to throw open the blinds and risk belief. Right now, this minute, time to move out into the grief and glory. High tide.