Only a catastrophe gets our attention. We want them, we depend on them. As long as they happen somewhere else.

I'm not reclusive at all. Just private.

Facts are lonely things.

To be a tourist is to escape accountability. Errors and failings don't cling to you the way they do back home. You're able to drift across continents and languages, suspending the operation of sound thought. Tourism is the march of stupidity.

Doesn't seem quite real. It's not meaningful. I can't quite imagine myself being 73. That's the age my father was! [Laughter.] How can I be his age? It's weird.

The writer is the person who stands outside society, independent of affiliation and independent of influence.

I don’t want your candor. I want your soul in a silver thimble.