If I dismiss the ordinary—waiting for the special, the extreme, the extraordinary to happen - I may just miss my life.

As a writer we are our own instruments; we need to protect our instrument, because no one will protect it if we don't.

There's something about urban life - you walk out your door, and you're in a steady of stream of life happening around you, and it's very easy to get caught up in that stream and simply kind of keep on moving.

If there's anything weirder than an introverted writer going to lots of social functions, it's an introverted writer being converted into an accidental guru.

When I sit down with my notebook, when I start scribbling words across the page, I find out what I’m feeling.

It is in the thousands of days of trying, failing, sitting, thinking, resisting, dreaming, raveling, unraveling that we are at our most engaged, alert, and alive.

I think there's something about a writer's disposition, that is, even if unaware, always slightly in a witness state.