Gossip. The more you talk about why people do things, the more ideas you have about how the world works.

Critical thinking is to a liberal education as faith is to religion. ... the converse was true also - faith is to a liberal education as critical thinking is to religion, irrelevant and even damaging.

I have noticed before that there is a category of acquaintanceship that is not friendship or business or romance, but speculation, fascination.

Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist.

A novelist is on the cusp between someone who knows everything and someone who knows nothing.

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

If to live is to progress, if you are lucky, from foolishness to wisdom, then to write novels is to broadcast the various stages of your foolishness.