You were at the age where you could fall in love with a girl over an expression, over a gesture

The greatest myth of all is what America is. I think that America is such an incredibly dynamic place because of immigration.

Character is the plot in many ways

I never hear white writers get asked, 'Do you worry about how you represent white people?'

This country has such little sense of itself sometimes, I'm astonished. America is one of the biggest myth-making countries, whether we're talking about how many books are published, how many movies we make. But the greatest myth of all is what America is.

You're the only person I've ever met who can stand a bookstore as long as I can.

We all have a blind spot and it's shaped exactly like us.