My fear now is of cliche, of complacency, of not being able to feel authenticity in myself and those around me.

I began to write fiction on the assumption that the true enemies of the novel were plot, character, setting and theme, and having once abandoned these familiar ways of thinking about fiction, totality of vision or structure was really all that remained.

Part of the way that I work is to observe.

I had to go to Sunday school once or twice in my life, and that's where I commented someplace on hearing.

To be anywhere near an enormous ocean liner when you are just like a fish in the water is frightening.

I do not feel an exile from America in any sense.

It's nice to sometimes get things out of life, rather than stealing from other artists. I'm trying to steal from the real people.