Novelists get to direct the perfect films. We get to cast every part. We dress the set exactly as we wish.

Listen to me. I’m shy. I’m not stupid. I can’t meet people’s eyes. I don’t know if you understand what that’s like. There’s a whole world going on around me, I’m aware of that. It’s not because I don’t want to look at you, Lucinda. It’s that I don’t want to be seen.

I met someone who lives in an elevator.

I don't have a lot of paper in my immediate work environment, except when I'm doing things like checking the godforsaken proofs.

As I get older I find that the friendships that are the most certain, ultimately, are the ones where you and the other person have made substantial amounts of money for one another.

The past is still visible. The buildings haven't changed, the layout of the streets hasn't changed. So memory is very available to me as I walk around.

I learned to write fiction the way I learned to read fiction - by skipping the parts that bored me.