When people leave, they always seem to scoop themselves out of you.

There are five things that societies do: They reproduce; they produce food; they organize themselves in terms of law; they organize themselves in terms of belief; and they make art. Four of them are about conformity, and in these, everything would go more smoothly if people just would shut up and do what they're told. But in art it doesn't work that way.

As Fallingwater demonstrates, Wright's genius was always specific, but also always lively, always daring.

I spent part of my college years in a Marxist commune. I was not a Marxist. I wasn't even pretending to be one. I was a Marxist-in-law.

Because your goal is a complete rough draft of a novel, and every rough draft, by being complete, is perfect.

The only siblings I have are half-siblings. My nuclear family would have been an extra-suffocating threesome. Instead, I have an interesting brother and sister, in-laws, and darling nephews.

I was an only child. I've known only children. From this experience, I do believe that the children should outnumber the parents.