We're not keen on the idea of the story sharing its valence with the reader. But the reader's own life "outside" the story changes the story.

Everything takes time. Bees have to move very fast to stay still.

If some people read my fiction and see it as fundamentally about philosophical ideas, what it probably means is that these are pieces where the characters are not as alive and interesting as I meant them to be.

You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't. You get to decide what to worship.

God, what a ghastly enterprise to be in, though-and what an odd way to achieve success. I'm an exhibitionist who wants to hide, but is unsuccessful at hiding; therefore, somehow I succeed.

...the most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.

Like so many other nerdy, disaffected young people of that time, I dreamed of becoming an 'artist', i.e., somebody whose adult job was original and creative instead of tedious and dronelike.