Sometimes people surprise us. People we believe we know.

Writing is a solitary occupation, and one of its hazards is loneliness. But an advantage of loneliness is privacy, autonomy and freedom.

But he doesn't love her. I invented that. It is a plot if you imagine people in love--the lazy looping criss crosses of love, blows, stares, tears. No. It doesn't happen. No love. People meet, touch, stare into one another's faces, shake their heads clear, move on, forget. It doesn't happen.

When people say there is too much violence in my books, what they are saying is there is too much reality in life.

Truths are the last thing you learn about your family. By the time you learn, you're no longer their child.

I come from people who did not go to college. They didn't even finish high school. People who one might call ordinary Americans who are very hardworking.

Tragedy is the highest form of art.