The only sensible approach is not to take it too seriously. What counts is the writing.

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

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

Delia's arms were inscribed with a grid of self- inflicted wounds, an intricate text of self-loathing

Great minds sink alike, right?

The 20th century saw far greater catastrophes than September 11th, as bad as it was, and they didn't render literature or art or music irrelevant. In fact, I think that literature and art help us to understand - sometimes they provide narratives and metaphors for understanding history, for understanding recent catastrophes.

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.