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.

Anybody who becomes a movie star becomes successful at projecting a certain image to the public.

There is a type of writer that can happily bury themselves in the country and dig very deep, but I'm not like that.

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

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

Sometimes I think the difference between what we want and what we're afraid of is about the width of an eyelash.

Tim Thornton's portrait of a pop culture obsession is so convincing that one can't help wishing that his fictional alt rock band actually existed, or suspecting that they did. The Alternative Hero is a weirdly compelling portrait of fanatic fandom which reads like High Fidelity at high volume.