Whatever I write, no matter how gray or dark the subject matter, it's still going to be a comic novel.

If you feel strongly about people having abortions, don't have one.

The excitement of anticipation was *almost* equal to the thrill of lovemaking.

It is hard work and great art to make life not so serious.

I try to see the whole woman,' Eddie said to Hannah. 'Of course I recognize that she's old, but there are photographs - or the equivalent of photographs in one's imagination of anyone's life. A whole life, I mean. I can picture her when she was much younger than I am - because there are always gestures and expressions that are ingrained, ageless. An old woman doesn't see herself as an old woman, and neither do I. I try to see her her whole life in her. There's something so moving about someone's whole life.

Gender mattered a whole lot less to Shakespeare than it seems to matter to us.

Be serious. Life hurts. Reflect what hurts. I don't mean that you can't also be funny, or have fun, but at the end of the day, stories are about what you lose.