Remember this... develop a sense of nostalgia for something, or you'll never figure out what's important.

You want to read a book? That requires introspection. It requires time away from people and time away from the constant need to communicate and to connect.

I was very, very sick when I was growing up in Russia. The ambulance constantly came to our house. I had horrible asthma that is easily treated in America, but they didn't even have inhalers back in Russia.

I reveled in the smallness, the coziness of an upstairs bedroom in a traditional American Cape Cod house the half-floor that forces you to duck, to feel small and naive again, ready for anything, dying for love, your body a chimney filled with odd, black smoke. These square, squat, awkward rooms are like a fifty-square-foot paean to teenage-hood, to ripeness, to the first and last taste of youth.

A writer or any suffering artist-to-be is just an instrument too finely set to the human condition [...]

I read real books. On paper. You know, those printed books? I feel like this is the last thing I do to support my industry. I think they smell great, too.

I just want fiction to remain a vital force for entertainment and not just for contemplation. Both things can exist.