I'm hugely honored [with the Man Booker Prize].

There are certain things that happen in New York that just don't happen anywhere else.

It's all the same for me, how I teach, how I write, how I think.

Don't write about trying to change the world, just write about a changed world or a world that's not changing. Let that do the work.

I wrote poems and an essay about that weird language. We still remember it to a certain extent, and it still comes up when we're all together. It's so fundamental to how I think.

The other thing [my psychology professor] said to me was that I was always very mindful of the person who was away from the group, that I was always trying to bring them in.

Contradictions make people feel off. They'll say, "Hey, you just said this and now this person is doing that, how is that possible?"