When I write I know that I'm going to have to produce 40 percent more than I need.

When you do something that's going to speak to people, it's going to be because you're really allowing all of yourself to the table in an accepting way.

I have this tendency to take a little bit of questionable knowledge and riff on it.

Character is that sum total of moments we can't explain.

That's one of the reasons I take a lot of consolation in fiction. You have years to work on it. I think that allows you to reach for the best part of your reader instead of a lot of the internet stuff, in which you're kind of reaching for the worst or the most shallow part of your reader.

When you're out there in America, meeting with regular people, it's a pretty mellow, relaxed, kind-hearted country. The direction from the top, from the President, is following mean-spirited tendencies: fear and undue caution and distrust of the other, so it's very depressing.

The internet kind of feels like happiness sometimes, however. It feels like stimulation.