There are things I don't like, like sitting at the head of the class. It makes me uncomfortable. I'll do it in a seminar if I have to, but with a workshop, I try to put myself in the circle somewhere. Because that hopefully frees up some people by making somebody else sit at the nominal head of the table.

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

If New York is the City That Never Sleeps, then Los Angeles is the City That's Always Passed Out on the Couch.

People are very comfortable when race relations get looked at retrospectively. Slavery, the civil rights movement, etc.

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.

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.

I'll say this, and it'll sound like bullshit, but it's not: I don't really pay attention to this stuff [Man Booker Prize] very much. I think part of it is I can see myself wondering who's doing what and getting jealous, and none of that's healthy for me. So I just don't really.