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.

If there is some blood on the pages then you have some readership.

What to know about pain is how little we do to deserve it, how simple it is to give, how hard to lose.

Oh, a bookshop. Why not pop in and buy a little Kant? And perhaps just a quarter-pound of Kafka. Don't bother to wrap it, thanks. I'll eat it here.

I get to meet writers, and I love writers.

I have a wonderful editor who believes in fiction and poetry. She herself is a novelist and poet.

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