I think what distresses me most in my life is that I have so many ideas I consider exciting ideas that I will never live to execute because it takes me so long to execute.

An actress wants to be seen. An actress wants to be loved. By multitudes of people, not just one lone man.

I remember once asking Grandma about a book she was reading, a biography of Abraham Lincoln, and how she answered me: this was the first conversation of my life that concerned a book, and 'the life of the mind' - and now, such subjects have become my life.

It's not hard to write poorly. But to write something good, it has to be revised.

The American dream is a multi-metaphor made up of distinct regions. Many regions of this country are almost like different countries. Even in one state, northern and southern California are like two separate countries.

What is a family, after all, except memories? Haphazard and precious as the contents of a catch-all drawer in the kitchen.

I was writing novels in high school and apprenticed myself in a way both to Faulkner and to Hemingway.