There's never any humongous next draft. I know a writer who every time he finished a novel - you would know his name very well - but his editor would come and live with him for a month. And they would go through the manuscript together.

It's only life. We all get through it.

All I asked was that I be spared surprises, although, in this world of six billion souls, all acting with free will and too many with audacity, surprises are inevitable, too few of them are the kind that make you smile and that lift your heart.

What popped up more than that was the realization that I made as an adult that the world is this incredibly complex, layered, and mysterious place and if you stop and think about it the human cell is literally more complex than a fleet of 747s.

The recognition of pain and fear in others give rise in us to pity, and in our pity is our humanity, our redemption.

If dogs talked, one of them would be president by now. Everybody likes dogs.

Your mind always does worse things than people can show in a movie.