The mystery of death, the riddle of how you could speak to someone and see them every day and then never again, was so impossible to fathom that of course we kept trying to figure it out, even when we were unconscious.

With so much reading ahead of you, the temptation might be to speed up. But in fact it’s essential to slow down and read every word. Because one important thing that can be learned by reading slowly is the seemingly obvious but oddly underappreciated fact that language is the medium we use in much the same way a composer uses notes, the way a painter uses paint. I realize it may seem obvious, but it’s surprising how easily we lose sight of the fact that words are the raw material out of which literature is crafted.

Reading was like eating alone, with that same element of bingeing.

I think poets are much more dramatic, more theatrical than fiction writers.

I wrote about four novels before I wrote a word of journalism.

Like most-maybe all- writers, I learned to write by writing and, by example, by reading books.

Fact-checking is so boring compared to writing fiction.