One likes to think there's something in it, that old platitude amor vincit omnia. But if I've learned one thing in my short sad life, it is that that particular platitude is a lie. Love doesn't conquer everything. And whoever thinks it does is a fool.

I suppose at one time in my life I might have had any number of stories, but now there is no other. This is the only story I will ever be able to tell.

Love doesn't conquer everything. And whoever thinks it does is a fool.

In order for a long piece of work to engage a novelist over an extended period of time, it has to deal with questions that you find very important, that you're trying to work out.

I believe, in a funny way, the job of the novelist is to be out there on the fringes and speaking for an experience that has not really been spoken for.

Beauty is rarely soft or consolatory. Quite the contrary. Genuine beauty is always quite alarming.

If I'm not working, I'm not happy. That's it. That's the prerequisite for me for happiness.