Slamming the book shut produces a wind on the face, a weather that is copyrighted by the author, and this wind may not be deployed without permission, nor may the pages be turned without express written permission.

The common, the quotidian, is so much more unyielding to me, really stubborn and hard to work with, and I like this because it makes me think and it makes me worry. I can't just plunge my hand into the meat of it. I need new approaches.

It amazes me that parents are allowed to raise kids. There's so much power and often very little accountability.

Suspense left my life a long time ago, now it has returned. I do not care for it.

My parents showed me by example that they could balance their work and family lives.

My first book, 'The Age of Wire and String,' came out in 1995, and it was hardly reviewed at all.

Mostly we're motivated to control ourselves in public. Mostly. At home the motivation is much less clear. At home there's a bit of a lab for bad behavior. You can test things out without terrible consequences. Or maybe the consequences are there, but they are deferred, buried, much harder to detect.