If you are any kind of an artist, then validation . . . can be a result, but you're going to do the work anyway.

I always think it's a good policy to like the people who like you.

I like nonfiction books about people with wretched lives.

In my dream world gay people in America would get the right to marry, and not a one of them would use that right.

Hugh consoled me, saying, "Don't let it get to you. There are plenty of things you're good at." When asked for some examples, he listed vacuuming and naming stuffed animals. He says he can probably come up with a few more, but he'll need some time to think.

It is funny the things that run through your mind when you're sitting in your underpants in front of a pair of strangers.

I think I became a better writer after I started writing for the New Yorker. Well, I know I did. And part of it was having my New Yorker editor and part of it is that was when I started really going on tour and reading things in front of an audience 30 times and then going back in the room and rewriting it and reading it and rewriting it. So you really get the rhythm of the sentences down and you really get the flow down and you get rid of stuff that's not important.