I had a deep prejudice against the South. It's taken me many years to get over that, be more open and thoughtful.

Books are an attempt to control something that's uncontrollable.

That split is inside all Americans. There are contradictions inside all of us about color and race. We've learned to cover them up and live with them and pretend that deep cleavage is not there. We all bear that illness.

My mother loved my father. From my view, she let him get away with too much. It broke my heart to see him in an old people's home and stop being strong and lose his voice.

That's the beauty and the terror of being human beings: We just have these symbolic languages, these dreams, and that's all it ever is.

I don't tell everything. I want the reader to have the feeling that maybe they know the whole truth, but they don't.

I really dislike it when people talk about "experimental," because any good writer is experimental.