Chekhov - shall I be blunt? - is the greatest short story writer who ever lived.

Don't be afraid to be confused. Try to remain permanently confused. Anything is possible.

It's funny with fiction - once you cut something, it hasn't happened anymore.

If you could press a button and your ego investment was less, the toothache would be less. Or less tragic at least.

The artist’s job, I think, is to be a conduit for mystery.

You go to the marketplace and there are seventeen consciousnesses moving in and out. Sometimes you want the same shirt that I want, and our thought bubbles collide a bit and that makes plot.

It is very easy for us to go, you know, "I am being cruel to be kind," when really we are just ... being cruel. Because it makes us feel big, or whatever.