When it comes to flying, I am a nervous passenger but a confident drinker and Valium-swallower.

I think a lot of people who read fiction are interested in subtlety. But they wouldn't like my stuff. It's a bit too violent for many tastes.

Tremendous interest in the superficial is very characteristic of cultures in decline.

My father always had doubts about the Booker prize, although they evaporated on the announcement that he had won it.

I would never write about someone that forced me to write at a lower register than what I can write.

It's a young country and a German only feels comfortable being with the masses. They have very little talent at creating an inner life, privacy. And I think there must be something wrong.

America still is the center of the world, and what happens in the American economy matters everywhere.