Newspapers are even worse for me than ice cream; headlines, and the big issues that generate the headlines, are pure fat.

...every study of the gods, of everyone's gods, is a revelation of vengeance towards the innocent.

You don't want to dwell on your enemies, you know. I basically feel so superior to my critics for the simple reason that they haven't done what I do. Most book reviewers haven't written 11 novels. Many of them haven't written one.

I grew up in a family where, through my teenage years, I was expected to go to church on Sunday. It wasn't terribly painful.

I'm old-fashioned, a storyteller. I'm not an analyst and I'm not an intellectual.

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

Everyone has a right to be a little happy, asshole.