Human beings are remarkable - at what we can learn to live with. If we couldn't get strong from what we lose, and what we miss, and what we want and can't have, then we couldn't ever get strong enough, could we? What else makes us strong?

Ambition robs you of your childhood. The moment you want to become an adult—in any way—something in your childhood dies.

If pride is a sin ... moral pride is the greatest sin.

Ted Seabrooke, my wrestling coach, had a kind of Nietzschean effect on me in terms of not just his estimation of my limited abilities, but his decidedly philosophical stance about how to conduct your life, what you should do to compensate for your limitations. This was essential to me, both as a student - and not a good one - and as a wrestler who was not a natural athlete but who had found something he loved.

The building of the architecture of a novel - the craft of it - is something I never tire of.

Being wrong about important things is exhausting.

I certainly think Obama is the most hopeful president I've seen in the country since John Kennedy.