You can't run away from home without destroying somebody's world.

In reality the world is made of thousands of groups of about five hundred people, all of whom will spend their lives bumping into each other, trying to avoid each other, and discovering each other in the same unlikely teashop in Vancouver. There is an unavoidability to this process. It's not even coincidence. It's just the way the world works, with no regard for individuals or propriety.

I love doing the readings. The readings are the fun bits... The readings are probably the things that actually keep me going on these. If I couldn't do the readings, I wouldn't do the [signing] tours. I get to stand up there and read to a bunch of adults who in many cases nobody's read to in years, since they were about five. They just squat on the floor. That's enormously enjoyable.

Never use five words if you can get away with one, eh? I've known dead men talk more than you do.

I do not threaten, I merely advise caution.

If you only write when inspired, you may be a fairly decent poet, but you'll never be a novelist.

For some, it was easier to take the leap from the leafless tree and dance on nothing until dancing was done.