A book can just be a description of a stick being snapped in half. If the reader is brought to feel the plight of the stick, well, you can imagine what that would be like.

If he acts, if he doesn't, it's meaningless. The whole thing goes forward. No one is important. No one at all.

If Americans are to read something that is difficult, they will only do so supposing they will be admired for having done it.

I believe in discovering the love that exists and then trying to understand it. Not to invent a love and try to make it exist, but to find what does exist, and then to see what it is.

I believe my friends think I'm funny. All the books are full of humor. Maybe it is a quiet sort of humor that masquerades as not-much-at-all. It is certainly easy to miss.

As far as ideas about book design: I have plenty. But I also try and let people do their jobs.

The books turn out to be about things afterwards. I don't go into them with concepts, for the most part.