Love is the eternal quest: almost everyone wants to love and be loved.

We've been hearing about the death of the novel ever since the day after Don Quixote was published.

I realized that I might not ever make it as a writer, that it might be because I wasn't good enough, or that it might be because the odds were just too long.

I love to imagine inside the head of a woman.

I was fortunate to get a lot of mileage out of my vices . . . The point is not to be debilitated by your pleasures. Maybe I have lucky genes or something but I've never been truly addicted to anything, except pleasure in general.

Most novelists I know went through a period of intense self-examination and self-loathing after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. I certainly did.

Add anchovies to almost anything, in moderation, and it will taste better.