It's just as political, what you do in the bedroom is just as political as what you do in public.

I just think, as writers, especially with a book that takes years to write, you sort of wake up every morning hoping and praying that you can make it work for the day.

There is something very romantic about the orphan figure in American literature.

There's also something sexual about watching the nubile girl in terror. But you do take on her fear as your own.

You sit at a fashion show in another country and you watch all of these paparazzi swarm around a celebrity, only they're a local celebrity, maybe a soap opera star, so you don't have any idea who they are, you just know they're famous to a bunch of stunned Italians. It's weird, because when you can't identify who a celebrity is, they can just look like overslicked stand-ins. That might sound awful, but what I mean is, when you think about most actresses, even in Hollywood, they really aren't that fascinating or glamorous in their own right once you strip away the flashbulbs.

I had lived in New York since 1996, sometimes in the worst neighborhoods, without even locking my door half the time.

I don't think secrets are a bad thing. I think there's this idea that everything needs to be transparent in order for it to be free.