Cities - I'm attracted to them, and I have a special attachment to New York...it's my place.

I think if we didn't contradict ourselves, it would be awfully boring. It would be tedious to be alive.

For some reason, all my characters come to me with their names attached to them. I never have to search for the names.

Writing is a solitary business. It takes over your life. In some sense, a writer has no life of his own. Even when he’s there, he’s not really there.

The things we remember are often things that have great emotional importance, and so they have a lasting effect.

You tend to feel very hurt when people attack you and feel indifferent when you get praise. You think, 'Of course they like it. They should like it.'

To feel estranged from language is to lose your own body.