Whoever you are, be that person with all your might. Time goes by faster than we thought. It is a thief so quiet. You must let yourself be loved and you must love, parts of you that never loved must open and love. You must announce yourself in all particulars so you can have yourself.

I wake my wife up at 3 a.m. and say, "Listen to this!"

The point is to strip down, get protestant, then even more naked. Walk over scorched bricks to find your own soul. Your heart a searching dog in the rubble.

I wanted very much to be Miles Davis when I was a boy, but without the practice. It just looked like an endless road.

Most novels I come across have all the excitement of a long trip on a bus with a sensitive glee club. Yammer and chat.

You need to see a bit of hell now and then. That, and great joy.

I don't write under the ghost of Faulkner. I live in the same town and find his life and work inspiring, but that's it. I have a motorcycle and tool along the country lanes. I travel at my own speed.