The novel has always been the form that incorporates other forms. For me, it has always been the ultimate medium.

If you're part of any kind of writerly community, some of those people will have gone through MFA programs, and their thinking leaks into yours. So whatever changes MFAs have made to the culture, it's to the culture as a whole. It can't be pinned down to individual books in a way that some people would like to do.

It remained an open question, how much sympathy love could stand.

Another older writer that had a huge influence on me is Chekhov. More contemporarily, it's hard to say.

I think the MFA programs have had a real effect on the state of American fiction, but I don't think it's a question of "this is written by someone with an MFA, and this isn't." I challenge anyone to identify a book in that way. It's totally impossible.

Most great books have been about striving in some sense. In a sense, money is the great topic of the novel. You couldn't necessarily say that about poetry.

It's very hard right now to be a pro sports fan. The economics of this stuff is abysmal.