There is a lack of context in contemporary education. And contemporary consideration - because we live in those interiorities so much. Especially young kids who live by surfing the Web.

My heroes are people like Philip Levine, who is simply like a god to me, as a writer. And he is a very good man, too.

I love baseball. What I love about baseball is that you are always waiting.

Good art is a form of prayer. It's a way to say what is not sayable.

It's hard to read real fiction. It takes time. It takes a sustained attention.

The education of young people is narrowing. They cannot have the scope they used to have. They are being taught in high school by people earnest, still, but maybe less well-prepared than we would want them to be - but not because they are stupid or churlish.

If you can propose a memoir, even if you are eighteen years old - and what do you remember? What are you memeing? If you can propose a memoir, I believe someone will pay you to write it. And you will get a contract for nonfiction. And if it is about victimology in one way or another than you'll get more money. It's a sensation.