It's better to be nominated for awards than not to be nominated for them, but of course to some degree such awards [National Book Award] are always subjective.

You are a real find and you keep me satisfied, up to a point. After all, I'm a malcontent and you can't change that.

What a midwesterner he was, a thoroughly unhip guy with his heart in the usual place, on the sleeve, in plain sight.

Savor the imminent weirdness of the day.

In truth, there are only two realities: the one for people who are in love or love each other, and the one for people who are standing outside all that.

Literature is not an instruction manual.

As the poet says, all happy couples are alike, it's the unhappy ones who create the stories. I'm no longer a story. Happiness has made me fade into real life.