Mark Twain was a great traveler and he wrote three or four great travel books. I wouldn't say that I'm a travel novelist but rather a novelist who travels - and who uses travel as a background for finding stories of places.

You define a good flight by negatives: you didn't get hijacked, you didn't crash, you didn't throw up, you weren't late, you weren't nauseated by the food. So you are grateful.

Fiction gives us a second chance that life denies us.

Friendship is also about liking a person for their failings, their weakness. It's also about mutual help, not about exploitation.

I like the idea of isolation, I like the idea of solitude. You can be connected and have a phone and still be lonely.

...a society without jaywalkers might indicate a society without artists.

People talk about the pain of writing, but very few people talk about the pleasure and satisfaction.