As a writer I'm not an explainer, really. I'm a narrator. I mistrust explanation.

As a writer I'm not an explainer, really. I'm a narrator. I mistrust explanation.

People are always invoking evolutionary psychology for everything. "Why do men hang around asking women out? Oh, to improve their reproductive success," every damn thing - religion, art - it can all be explained by evolutionary psychology. But in our hearts we know that evolutionary psychology is only sort of accurate, because it really doesn't capture what's most interesting about our lives.

The truth is out there somewhere, but the dog needs to be walked.

Any good biography has to got to lead you to the work. Many biographers have started out in love with their subjects and ended up hating them.

Grammar, he saw, was agreement, community, consensus.

I didn't go through anyone's garbage. People brought what they felt I needed to know to me.