You have family", Bob said. "You have a wife who hates you. Kids who are furious with you. A brother and sister who make you insane. And a nephew who used to be kind of a drip but apparently is not so much of a drip now. That's called family".

The appetites of the body were private battles.

In a way, I'm very interested in writing about Maine, because I think Maine represents its own kind of history. It's the oldest state, and it's the whitest state.

I'm so interested in the fact that we really don't know anybody. We think we know the people close to us, but we don't, we really don't.

If you get divorced in New York, you go into therapy and will talk to anybody you meet on the sidewalk about it.

The key to contentment was to never ask why; she had learned that long ago.

I've always been tremendously interested in criminal law. It goes to a deep interest I have in prisons and the criminal element, and what we do as a society with it. I've always been touched by the idea of criminality.