When I begin a story at my desk, the window to my back, the path is not there. As I start to walk, I make the path.

In my early twenties, that's when I really began to write. Before that, I was too busy working, keeping myself going.

When there's a terrible murder people who are interviewed say, 'This has always been a quiet neighborhood.' That is so dumb and uninformed! The earth is not a quiet neighborhood. There isn't anyplace that's a quiet neighborhood. People are asking themselves how to stay neat in the cyclone.

The language of labels is like paper money, issued irresponsibly, with nothing of intrinsic value behind it, that is, with no effort of the intelligence to see, to really apprehend.

Literature is the province of imagination, and stories, in whatever guise, are meditations on life.

When I begin a story at my desk, the window to my back, the path is not there. As I start to walk, I make the path.

A good novel begins with a small question and ends with a bigger one.