With nonfiction, I go in trying to be really honest about what my preconceptions are.

Don't be afraid to be confused. Try to remain permanently confused. Anything is possible. Stay open, forever, so open it hurts, and then open up some more, until the day you die, world without end, amen.

Working with language is a means by which we can identify the bullshit within ourselves (and others).

The cool parts - the parts that have won Dubai its reputation as 'the Vegas of the Middle East' or 'the Venice of the Middle East' or 'the Disney World of the Middle East, if Disney World were the size of San Francisco and out in a desert' - have been built in the last ten years.

In a certain way, we're always toggling back and forth between the absolute and the relative, if that makes sense.

Even the written history [of Abraham Lincoln's times] is poorly understood by most people.

I'm not a big fan of my books going on cross-country road trips. They get arrogant and, next thing, start aspiring to become 'large-print' books. I say, let them stay home and be regular small-print books.