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.

I don't know if [Samuel] Beckett is something you ever bring to the beach - get out of the water, towel off, and start reading some of "The Unnamable." Although, because it's the kind of book you can open to any page and start reading, it is beach reading in that way.

Humility is considered an un-masculine quality.

Anxiety is part of creativity, the need to get something out, the need to be rid of something or to get in touch with something within.

When I grew up, I was in Manhattan the whole time. But my kids have been all over the world.

I'll instinctively know that I identify with a character.

People always love and respect characters who speak the truth, even if the truth hurts.