I feel like a centrist, an issue-specific person. I'm pretty conservative fiscally and pretty liberal on social issues.

The novel remains a very special form for me.

Doing good stuff or stuff that you are proud of takes time and takes effort.

I guess I've always been an aspiring novelist. I went to Princeton and wrote a novel for my thesis.

In some ways, a novel isn't as structurally rigorous as a screenplay or a TV show, which have finite real estate. In a novel, you can more deeply illuminate a character's interior and get away with digressions.

Listening takes practice, and it takes patience. But I promise, if you listen, your story will be better for it.

I knew I wanted to be a writer. Where I came from, no one was a writer. I came from Long Island, and everyone became a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer or a teacher or a businessman. I didn't know any writers.