Fame means millions of people have the wrong idea of who you are.

I have a very sensitive nose. I identify with dogs. I understand the world through my nose.

I prefer to work in the morning. I get up now at five in the morning. In the morning is when I feel freshest.

As a reader, I want a book to kidnap me into its world. Its world must make my so-called real world seem flimsy. Its world must lure me to return. When I close the book, I should feel bereft.

Art keeps one young, I think, because it keeps one perpetually a beginner, perpetually a child.

A book is a box brimming with incendiary material. The reader strikes the match.

If we ban whatever offends any group in our diverse society, we will soon have no art, no culture, no humor, no satire. Satire is by its nature offensive. So is much art and political discourse. The value of these expressions far outweighs their risk.