Food ... is the topmost taper on the golden candelabrum of existence.

Is death that which gives meaning to life? And I said, no, life is that which gives meaning to life.

The not-knowing is crucial to art, is what permits art to be made. Without the scanning process engendered by not-knowing, without the possibility of having the mind move in unanticipated directions, there would be no invention.

Faint equivalents can sometimes be found ... . Or it can be rendered obliquely-an adolescent's mental image of his or her parents making love, which must be something on the order of crocodiles mating.

Is death that which gives meaning to life?

There's not a strong autobiographical strain in my fiction. A few bits of fact here and there.

The task is not so much to solve problems as to propose questions.