If I can be more efficient, I'm actually being more respectful to the reader, which then implies a greater intimacy with the reader.

I'm such a baby if I even get a flu.

Every writer knows that when you're imitating somebody - you know, you're sounding like Faulkner - you're doing pretty good, but your life in Hoboken isn't Faulkneresque. So you get that kind of shortfall between the actual experience of the writer and the things he's hungry to express and the voice itself.

In Catholicism, we would say you're going to be judged, so therefore you should do better now. For me, Buddhism is somewhat more workable because instead of saying I have to do good, it says I have to notice what I'm actually doing.

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

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

So here's something I know to be true, although it's a little corny, and I don't quite know what to do with it.