Writing is the most solitary of arts.

Memory blurs, that's the point. If memory didn't blur you wouldn't have the fool's courage to do things again, again, again, that tear you apart.

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.

A writer can't subtract or excise any of his/her past because doing so would erase the work produced during that time.

If a book I've committed myself to review turns out to be 'disappointing' I make an effort to present it objectively to the reader, including a good number of excerpts from the text, so that the reader might form his or her own opinion independent of my own.

Very few writers of distinction in fact were outstanding as undergraduates.

The worst thing: to give yourself away in exchange for not enough love.