I sometimes think that I can't do the bigger thing that [Zadie Smith] do so beautifully, as in Swing Time, with so much world in it and so much rapturous paint thrown around. I don't think it would be possible to write a book on that scale with as much OCD as I have.

If you understand writing as primarily engaging an imaginary reader, well, you've kind of been doing that your whole life. You walk into a room and you're engaging with imaginary strangers because you don't actually know who they are. For me, it was really empowering to say: this is a branch of entertainment and communication and engagement, as opposed to jumping over some perceived literary high bar. That was the buzzkill.

I've found that my first drafts are not so special. But the more I work on them, the better they get. They are more unique and defensible.

Sometimes I think fiction exists to model the way God might think of us, if God had the time and inclination to do so.

Toni Morrison seems to have a lot of faith in people - that's what I mean by gentle power.

The contours of the coming disaster expanded to include the deaths of all present.

I think the biggest single issue is income inequity and what this is doing to the good old "American dream." This and corporatism - this delusional idea that "shareholder value" outweighs everything else.