I never would have thought of that word, "hospitality." I settle into the rhythm of my steps.

In Invisible there's a lot about childhood, the death of the brother and then the relationship between the brother and sister.

All through my writing life I've had this impulse to write autobiographical works.

I think that's what turns young men and women into writers - the happiness you discover living in books.

I was always very curious as a young man about why older writers who I met seemed so indifferent to what was going on, whereas I, in my 20s, was reading everything. Everything seemed important. But they were only interested in the writers they admired when they were young, and I didn't understand it then, but now, now I understand it.

Eighteen is a terrible age, and while I walked around with the conviction that I was somehow more grown-up than my classmates, the truth was that I had merely found a different way of being young.

It became a habit of mine never to leave the house without a pencil in my pocket.