It's all sex for me. Politics is sex. Race is sex. It's the novel. It's the novel!

I needed to address that I've had some profound moral shifts in my own life.

Classical music fulfills for me the function of narrative. I spend 90 minutes a day listening to symphonic music - Beethoven to Bartók - some chamber pieces, and that's my enrichment.

There's none with me, although you've seen me before - I'm outrageous.

I'm trying to be less bombastic. I love my books. I think I've done things nobody else has done.

For a much lauded writer, I'm not terribly self-absorbed. In social situations, which are difficult for me - I mean, this is an interview - I'm normally uncomfortable talking about myself.

I don't feel in any way obligated to remain current with the culture. I feel no social obligation whatsoever. I trust my morality in the narrow path I trek through the world as I work.