I say, 'If I had a serious brain injury I might well write a children's book', but otherwise the idea of being conscious of who you're directing the story to is anathema to me, because, in my view, fiction is freedom and any restraints on that are intolerable.

Weapons are like money; no one knows the meaning of enough.

He was an artist when he saw society: it never crossed his mind that society had to be like this; had any right, had any business being like this. A car in the street. Why? Why cars? This is what an artist has to be: harassed to the point of insanity or stupefaction by first principles.

When we read, we are doing more than delectating words on a page stories, characters, images, notions. We are communing with the mind of the author.

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

When the past is forgotten, the present is unforgettable

I say the sentences again and again in my head until they sound right.