They all settled into being the kind of friends when they heard from each other.... or when they occasionally got together. And when they were not in touch, they did not think of one another.

What a phrase that is: 'that explains everything!' I know better than to think anything 'explains everything' today.

Keep passing the open windows.

You bet I write disaster fiction. We have compiled a disastrous record on this planet, a record of stupidity and absurdity and self-abuse and self-aggrandizement and self-deception and pompousness and self-righteousness and cruelty and indifference beyond what any other species has demonstrated the capacity for, which is the capacity for all the above.

Whereas she wished more of the population were better educated, she also believed that education was largely wasted on the majority of the people she met.

Writing a novel is actually searching for victims. As I write I keep looking for casualties. The stories uncover the casualties.

You can give yourself a headache trying to decipher the tattoos on a naked man who’s leaping up and down on a bed.