I'm not trying to uncover the facts of my life but to discover the dramatic truth of the situations I was in.

No pain is too small if it hurts, but any pain is too big if it's cherished.

Well, the attractive thing about the subject of happiness is that it is notoriously difficult to write.

Detachment is what interests me, seeing how people couldn't have been any other way, how they were the product of forces that they had no control over.

The first book I fell in love with was 'Little Toot,' the story of an adorable tugboat operating out of New York Harbor.

It's no use imagining that bringing great writers together inevitably precipitates great conversation.

I'm really not responsible for what mental operation people have when they're reading my books other than the ones which are created by literary effects.