The great thing about using the past is that it gives you the most colossal freedom to invent. The research is necessary, of course, but no one writes a novel to dramatically illustrate what everybody already knows.

I never base characters on real people. There are people who do that but I really don't know how to do it.

I'm interested in where we are, where we're going, where we've come from.

Nostalgia is something we think of as fuzzy. But it's pain. Pain concerning the past.

Living where I live New York I don't think anyone's going to make a fuss. But it is more deeply satisfying because it's of your place and means that you aren't forgotten; someone's noticed what you have been doing with your life.

People do not love those whose eyes show that they are somewhere else

To know you will be lonely is not the same as being lonely.