In the U.S., oddly, we have images of men as arrogant and aggressive.

Actually, I have an interest in finishing my Ph.D., but I just know I never will.

I also watch a lot of really bad television when I'm writing, "Like Dancing With the Stars," with my daughter.

I mean, you always want everybody to pat you on the back and tell you you're wonderful every time you do something; I think that's human nature.

Every day I try to do breathing exercises, meditation, and yoga. These things sound awfully cliche, but they help me slow down and try to point to a truth.

The key is to get to know people and trust them to be who they are. Instead, we trust people to be who we want them to be - and when they're not, we cry.

I'm a big Philip Roth fan. I think "American Pastoral" is the great American novel of the past 30 to 40 years. It's a novel about what happened in the 1960s, and I think America is still dealing with what happened then. It's devastatingly sad.