Writing is a form of personal freedom. It frees us from the mass identity we see in the making all around us.

History was not a matter of missing minutes on the tape. I did not stand helpless before it. I hewed to the texture of collected knowledge, took faith from the solid and availing stuff of our experience. Even if we believe that history is a workwheel powered by human blood -- read the speeches of Mussolini -- at least we've known the thing together. A single narrative sweep, not ten thousand wisps of disinformation. (82)

It frequently happens that I begin a novel with just a visual image of something, a vague sense of people in three dimensional space.

Writing is a form of personal freedom. It frees us from the mass identity we see in the making all around us. In the end, writers will write not to be outlaw heroes of some underculture but mainly to save themselves, to survive as individuals.

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

I don't want to do the type of writing where I recite biography, parentage and education. I want to rise up from the words on the page and do something, hurt someone.

What we are reluctant to touch often seems the very fabric of our salvation.