Some people are great, and they approach each work with honesty, and that's wonderful. But when people have built up a sort of resentment or animosity for reasons that are hard to put your finger on, they read in bad faith.

I think I hate cynicism more than anything else. It's the curse of our age, and I want to avoid it at all costs.

I have difficulty orienting myself in space, and I'm probably one of the few people who gets lost in Manhattan.

I believe that the whole idea of the consumer society is tottering. We've kept ourselves going by producing more and more goods, most of which people don't need. I'm anti-consumerism; I own four pairs of black Levis and that's it.

Bodies count, of course - they count more than we're willing to admit - but we don't fall in love with bodies, we fall in love with each other. We all know that, but the moment we go beyond a catalogue of surface qualities and appearances, words begin to fail us, to crumble apart in mystical confusions and cloudy, unsubstantial metaphors.

All children are love children, he said, but only the best ones are ever called that.

For one reason or another, I became a passionate reader when I was very little. As soon as I could read, I wanted to read.