I seem always to have two or three novels going at once. It takes me a long time to finish one.

I like a great degree of compression. I like to mix lateral steps with forward ones. I don't want the prose ever to feel simply functional - at least not for any stretch.

The real past can traumatize us, but so can the real future.

We're getting used to reality and fantasy passing into each other. Much of the border between them has been erased.

I love poetry, read it a lot, but make no claim to being able to write it.

We can't write a serious novel in the 21st century without acknowledging the inescapable self-awareness we're stuck with. The idea we're surrounded by falsehoods and lies. It's hard for the thinking person to believe in narratives. And yet we want some place to invest our belief.

I'm not even sure if empathy is an act, it could be a disposition.