The great American denial riff is that you can do whatever you like and you always triumph at the end. The world is saying no, you can do what you like, but there are consequences. And maturity is to be able to turn to the consequences and accept them.

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.

Goodbye. I am leaving because I am bored.

The bottom line for me is that life is short and art is long.

I read Rand and thought, "I want to be one of the earth movers, the scientific people who power the world. I don't want to be one of these lisping liberal artsy leeches." So I was working against my actual abilities.

I'm not thinking in any big thematic or conceptual terms - especially in this book [Lincoln in the Bardo] when I was trying to make the voices more active, more energetic.

I have finally realized that, you know, it's not a given that my lifespan will accommodate my writing aspirations.