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

The first of my father's illusions was that bears could survive the life led by human beings; the second was that human beings could survive a life in hotels.

People regard art too highly, and history not enough

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.

The concept of writing a novel and not knowing where it's going - I don't know how to do that. Novels are plot- and character-driven, so if I don't know what becomes of people, how can I know where it should begin?

It is much easier to be flexible about where a story begins than it ever was for me to change my mind about where and how a story ended.

People are either attracted to the unseemly or disapproving of it, or both; yet we try to sound superior to the unseemly by pretending to be amused by it or indifferent to it.