Writing is the lonely sport of sad sacks.

Parenthood means becoming comfortable with the fact that there are things outside your control, things that end and fail, just as most utopias end and by some measure fail. And just because they're a failure doesn't mean there isn't value there.

Our human impulse is to control everything, but fiction seems to me to be about allowing an element of mystery into the text.

I think attempting to make art is a utopian process in itself, definitely. Nothing I do is ever equal to the ideas in my head. You do the best you can, you do it with patience and love, and then you give up. The moment you give up is when you know the book is done.

In this moment that blooms and fades as it passes, he is enough, and all is well in the world.

In the end, fiction is the craft of telling truth through lies.

If there's a black cat that crosses the street in my path, I will turn around and walk 20 minutes out of my way to not cross it.