A shrewd person would one day start a religion based on coincidence, if he hasn't already, and make a million.

Stories are consoling, fiction is one of the consolation prizes for having lived in the world.

The world isn't going to be destroyed, but you don't feel safe anymore in your plane or train or office or auditorium.

The smoke alarm went off in the hallway upstairs, either to let us know the battery had just died or because the house was on fire.

When I read obituaries I always note the age of the deceased. Automatically I relate this figure to my own age. Four years to go, I think. Nine more years. Two years and I'm dead. The power of numbers is never more evident than when we use them to speculate on the time of our dying.

You need to know things the others don't know. It's what no one knows about you that allows you to know yourself.

A novel determines its own size and shape and I've never tried to stretch an idea beyond the frame and structure it seemed to require.