Had I been blessed with even limited access to my own mind there would have been no reason to write.

New York was no mere city. It was instead an infinitely romantic notion.

I use an IBM Thinkpad. I just use it like a typewriter, but when I started using it in 1987, I thought I won't be able to write anymore, so I thought I'd go back to the typewriter. But you couldn't go back to the typewriter after using the computer.

Another thing I need to do, when I'm near the end of the book, is sleep in the same room with it...Somehow the book doesn't leave you when you're asleep right next to it.

I know why we try to keep the dead alive: we try to keep them alive in order to keep them with us.

I recognize a lot of the things I'm going through. Like, I lose my temper a lot and I become unhinged and kind of hysterical.

Short stories demand a certain awareness of one's own intentions, a certain narrowing of the focus.