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.

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

…there is no nakedness that compares to being naked in front of someone for the first time.

You know, everybody dies. My parents died. Your father died. Everybody dies. I'm going to die too. So will you. The thing is, to have a life before we die. It can be a real adventure having a life

Life forces enough final decisions on us. We should have the sense to avoid as many of the unnecessary ones as we can.

The lie, of course, is more interesting.

I have a friend who says that reviewers are the tickbirds of the literary rhinoceros-but he is being kind. Tickbirds perform a valuable service to the rhino and the rhino hardly notices the birds.