The lie, of course, is more interesting.

No adult in my family would ever tell me anything about who my father was. I knew from an older cousin - only four years older than I am - everything, or what little I could discover about him.

You don't want to be ungenerous toward people who give you prizes, but it is never the social or political message that interests me in a novel. I begin with an interest in a relationship, a situation, a character.

You can't say you're going to ban something in the name of good taste, because then you have directed someone to play the role of good-taste police. We - Americans - permit bad taste in this country. In fact, we even encourage it.

…there was no more safety to be found in love than there was to be found in a virus.

Nothing moves at the Hotel New Hampshire! We're screwed down here-for life!

I’m not afraid, but I’m very nervous.