Writers can write outside their ethnicity or sex depending how open and vulnerable they wish to be.

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.

The reason to moderate is to avoid having to quit.

The danger of civilization, of course, is that you will piss away your life on nonsense.

Birthdays are ghost bounty hunters that track you down to ask, "Que pasa, baby?

I wonder, when a writer's blocked and doesn't have any resources to pull himself out of it, why doesn't he jump in his car and drive around the U.S.A.? I went last winter for seven thousand miles and it was lovely. Inexpensive, too.

We are all naturally xenophobic.