My work is more important than I am. I'm just some guy.

People will complain that they don't want to wait around for lightning to strike, but why not? If you invest yourself in chance, the potential for disappointment is pretty low.

Everybody is in various states of needing to transcend something. I believe in mental health care, but when we call people "crazy," we exclude them from our circle.

As important as politics are to me, the life and the spirit of people's emotions are much more important. People live real lives where they love and grieve and feel pain and joy and that is a whole separate sphere. All that political stuff, I believe in it strongly, but not as strongly as I believe that at some point you or someone is going to need a song to sit with and comfort them in a hard time.

It's hard always to say what it is one likes about a place, for me. I feel it.

Life is hard, you're tired, and there's disease. The strategy that works for children is to be delighted by the things that delight you.

A novel is a performance you have to plan.