Topiary has always seemed like a good occupation, comparable in some ways to writing short fiction.

Sometimes it is safer to read maps with your feet.

I don't abandon stories once I've started working on them. Once I sit down and start a story, I'll be damned if I'm going to give up on it. But I do reject most of the ideas for stories that I come up with.

Part of you is always traveling faster, always traveling ahead. Even when you are moving, it is never fast enough to satisfy that part of you.

When you're Dead ... you stay up all night long.

Look. All books are weird when you think about it.... It goes without saying that real life is also weird.

When I'm up for an award, there are usually two or three other things on the ballot that I like better than my own fiction.