I think if someone could demonstrate to me that fiction did no good, I would still do it, because I think it does good for me.

Success is like a mountain that keeps growing ahead of you as you hike it... Err in the direction of kindness.

As one gets older, this question of death, becomes more vexing and urgent.

That seems to be the definition of 'novel' for me: a story that hasn't yet discovered a way to be brief.

I know that my only chance at any kind of depth or profundity is to linger within the story, trying to make it distinguish itself.

I'm always nice when I do drugs. But, you know, I'm nicer on the drug called "writing."

And I have finally realized that, you know, it's not a given that my lifespan will accommodate my writing aspirations. It could be that it would take me 12 more books at six years each to get it - which means I would have to live to be 126. Which I fully intend to do, of course.