It's not the writer who determines how good she is anyway. Writers don't determine that. It's readers who determine that.

I also think that the issue of doubt and uncertainty is always a good thing and I question why I believe what I believe. I see things changing all around me and I don't feel devoted to a form. If I'm devoted to anything, I'm devoted to the attempt - the "trying" to do something.

Wanting to know all kinds of things is perfect for novelists, because novelists are generalists. We're not specialists in anything, except, hopefully, writing.

I think it's very hard to reconcile oneself to the notion that it may not matter what you think if you still want to write.

My friends and I sometimes laugh at each other that there is so much maintenance of a body. I paid no attention when I was younger.

I think it's true that unless human beings experience something, they simply don't understand what people are going through.

I don't have the education of an art historian. I've certainly read about art and look at art and have educated myself to some extent. But I'm not a skilled or thorough art historian and I wouldn't call myself an art critic.