He was too young to know that, in any novel with a reasonable amount of forethought, there were no coincidences.

Wrestling was my first success, the first thing that confirmed that I could be good at anything. Devoting yourself to wrestling, or tennis, or skiing, or dance, or to a musical instrument is a longing to be disciplined for a purpose.

A writer's job is to imagine everything so personally that the fiction is as vivid as memories.

Children are most impressed with the importance of a moment when they witness a parent breaking the parents' own rule.

People regard art too highly, and history not enough

The former stewardess glared at her ex-pilot husband as if he had been speaking, and thinking, in the absence of sufficient oxygen.

If I have any advantage, maybe, as a writer, it is that I don't think I'm very interesting. I mean, beginning a novel with the last sentence is a pretty plodding way to spend your life.