We tire differently if we love or love not.

I have a different purpose in writing each novel. Some of them seem more similar than others, but the purposes are always different.

The old man began to sing. His voice was very lovely and obviously a part of something that the world had disposed of in its haste, evidence of a grander, kinder past.

I have a very basic notion of the structure the book might have - that's mostly it. The rest is luck and happenstance.

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

In searching for a way out of my own troubles, I had found my way into the troubles of others, some long gone, and now I was trying to find my way back out, through their troubles, as if we human beings can ever learn from one another.

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