The arts and a belief in the values of the civil rights movement, in the overwhelming virtue of diversity, these were our religion. My parents worshipped those ideals.

The computer is the way I'm making books, but I still think about the physical properties. I visualize the length of a book, the proportions of a book, in material terms.

When people call something "original," 9 out of 10 times they just don't know the references or original sources involved.

I had an all-Fear of Music iPod, just versions of the 11 songs from the record. No other songs allowed.

Apologies aren't something you want to get in the habit of practicing in the mirror

There's something about the rhythms of language that correspond to the rhythms of our own bodies.

My writing life is pretty simple - I try to work every day, almost always in the mornings - and I can only write fiction effectively for about three or at the most four hours. No big mysteries, I just sit down and try to advance the cause a little bit every day.