It is an important distinction to note that she looked not only as if she had taken good care of herself, but that she had good reason to have done so. (...) She looked to be in such total possession of her life that only the most confident men could continue to look at her if she looked back at them. Even in bus stations, she was a woman who was stared at only until she looked back.

You take every opportunity given you in this world, even if you have too many opportunities. One day, the opportunities stop, you know.

You live your life at the time you live it -- you don't have much of an overview when what's happening to you is still happening.

You've got to get obsessed and stay obsessed.

When I feel like being a director, I write a novel.

This was not of the nature of a Christlike lesson for Owen Meany to learn, as he lay in the manger, that someone you hate can give you a hard-on.

I have always believed that, in a story, if something traumatic or calamitous enough happens to a kid at a formative age, that will make him or her the adult they become.