That’s life for you. All the happiness you gather to yourself, it will sweep away like it’s nothing. If you ask me I don’t think there are any such things as curses. I think there is only life. That’s enough.

The world should always be concerned whenever a vast human rights violation occurs anywhere on the planet.

I think that if you're writing about the human condition, my God, you've got to start at base: point zero, point one, is the body.

But it's clear to me that us slow-poke writers are a dying breed. It's amazing how thoroughly my young writing students have internalized the new machine rhythm, the rush many of my young writers are in to publish. The majority don't want to sit on a book for four, five years. The majority don't want to listen to the silence inside and outside for their artistic imprimatur. The majority want to publish fast, publish now.

Here at last is her smile: burn it into your memory; you won't see it often.

An ear will never do you wrong, but I know writers who... most of the language they use is just extracted language from other languages they've read. I am a big-time reader, but I mix and match.

I just want some space to myself every now and then. Every time I’m with you I have this sense that you want something from me.