Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake.

In the twentieth century one of the most personal relationships to have developed is that of the person and the state. It's become a fact of life that governments have become very intimate with people, most always to their detriment.

I am led to the proposition that there is no fiction or nonfiction as we commonly understand the distinction: there is only narrative.

Every major work of art is a transgression, but the artist is not necessarily, by nature, a transgressor.

I've known several cases of writers who decide to write about something and they research the hell out of it and when they're ready to write, they can't move because they are so burdened. I start writing. Whatever I need somehow comes to hand.

Anyone at any age is able to tell the story of his or her life with authority.

When I'm writing, I like to seal everything off and face the wall, not to look outside the window. The only way out is through the sentences.