The most interesting things that happen in my books are usually the things that arise spontaneously, the things that surprise me.

The capacity for friendship is God's way of apologizing for our families.

A creative writing program is only as good as its teachers, and I was fortunate in having two great writers as mentors.

Eat, drink and remarry is my motto.

Your presence here is is only a matter of conducting an experiment in limits, reminding yourself of what you aren’t.

Most all of the writers I admired when I was in my teens and twenties died young. Fitzgerald lived the longest. He was 44. Dylan Thomas was 39. And then once you're approaching 40, you suddenly think, "Well, maybe I would like to live longer than Fitzgerald or Thomas."

There is a shabby nobility in failing all by yourself.