The idea of the book ["The Japanese Lover"] came in a conversation that I had with a friend walking in the streets of New York. We were talking about our mothers, and I was telling her how old my mother was, and she was telling me about her mother. Her mother was Jewish, and she said that she was in a retirement home and that she had had a friend for 40 years that was a Japanese gardener. This person had been very important in my friend's upbringing.

What is truer than truth? Answer: the story.

I carry around a little stool to stand on when people want a picture with their cellular phones.

She intended to swallow the world and he lived crushed by reality.

A novel is achieved with hard work, the short story with inspiration.

Music is a wind that blows away the years, memories, and fear, that crouching animal I carry inside me.

Seated by her side in the narrow cabin, pressing cold compresses to her forehead and holding her while she vomited, he felt profoundly happy.