I feel like a lot of life is distasteful and embarrassing. And you just push through it. You fix what you can, and you let time pass.

... nothing broke my heart like the slow death of a shared joke that had once seemed genuinely funny.

Anyone who's really interested in anything spends time alone.

I just write the books that I think I would want to read.

Probably I, like a lot of people, became a writer in imitation of or in homage to the books I enjoyed. When you're so captivated by something, you think, could I do that? Hmm, let me try

There are people we treat wrong and later we're prepared to treat other people right. Perhaps this sounds mercenary, but I feel grateful for these trial relationships, and I would like to think it all evens out - surely, unknowingly, I have served as practice for other people.

Personally, I have never wished I were a male novelist.