As belief shrinks from the world, it is more necessary than ever that someone believe. Wild-eyed men in caves. Nuns in black. Monks who do not speak. We are left to believe. Fools, children. Those who have abandoned belief must still believe in us. They are sure they are right not to believe but they know belief must not fade completely. Hell is when no one believes.

That's how you write novels actually. You suddenly hit upon something and you realize this is the path you were meant to take. You'd be a fool if you didn't follow it. Perhaps it's like solving a difficult question in pure mathematics. There must be a moment when the solution is so simple and evident that you wonder why you hadn't come upon it before. When you do come upon it, you know it in the deepest part of your being. It carries its own logic.

All human existence is a trick of light.

I think literature has lost it's power. Great novels continue to be written, but they are no longer changing the world.

I've come to think of Europe as a hardcover book, America as the paperback version.

Time is a corporate asset now. It belongs to the free market system. The present is harder to find... The future becomes insistent.

Eye contact was a delicate matter. A quarter second of a shared glance was a violation of agreements that made the city operational.