It's like a mathematical law, Grace.

There's love, and certainly children you care about more than yourself. But nevertheless, we're alone in our heads.

When I think of Tokyo Story, yeah, it is like a novella. That doesn't mean it's not great. Some of my favorite Tolstoy works are his novellas.

The real is always way ahead of what we can imagine.

You can't put your feet on the ground until you've touched the sky.

I'd go nuts. Because people look at the same passage and one person will say this is the best thing he's ever read, and another person will say it's absolutely idiotic. I mean, there's no way to reconcile those two things. You just have to forget the whole business of what people are saying.

The tone of every book is slightly different; there's a music that each has that is distinct from all the others.