The novel is always pop art, and the novel is always dying. That's the only way it stays alive. It does really die. I've been thinking about that a lot.

I like that people who are not experts can not only understand but get engaged by my work. I like that Joe Paterno can read me. Bill Bradley.

Faulkner turned out to be a great teacher. When a student asked a question ineptly, he answered the question with what the student had really wanted to know.

I never met anybody in my life who says, I want to be a critic. People want to be a fireman, poet, novelist.

DeLillo never seems committed to me to what he is writing. Very nice surfaces, but he's got nothing underneath.

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's somebody doing something because I pushed them in that direction.

Faulkner sat in our living room and read from Light in August. That was incredible.