I think it's dangerous to think you know what you're writing. I usually don't know, and usually I just discover it in the course of writing. I envy those writers who can outline a beginning, a middle, and end. Fitzgerald supposedly did it. John Irving does. Bret Easton Ellis does. But for me, the writing itself is the process of discovery. I can't see all that far ahead.

I like the fact that I'm living in the world rather than in a university.

If being a spokesman for a generation is a fleeting occupation, being a symbol of an era is downright dangerous for anyone who has the bad luck to outlive it.

He insisted on a single trade secret: that you had to survive, find some quiet, and work hard every day.

There aren't many shy writers left.

I think men talk to women so they can sleep with them and women sleep with men so they can talk to them.

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