I asked a French critic a couple of years ago why my books did so well in France. He said it was because in my novels people both act and think. I got a kick out of that.

One of the curious effects of a bad hangover is that you think you're wrong whether you are or not. Not wrong in particulars, but wrong in general, wrong about everything.

There is a neurologist, a woman over at Harvard who wanted me to come talk to them, and in France I have a lot of readers in the sciences. I can't tell you why.

You touch things lightly or deeply; you move along because life herself moves, and you can’t stop it.

We Americans are trained to think big, talk big, act big, love big, admire bigness but then the essential mystery is in the small.

I'm not rational enough to be a good journalist.

I'd rather get a brain tumor than go back to teaching.