I don’t ask writers about their work habits. I really don’t care. Joyce Carol Oates says somewhere that when writers ask each other what time they start working and when they finish and how much time they take for lunch, they’re actually trying to find out, "Is he as crazy as I am?" I don’t need that question answered.

When you publish a book, it's the world's book. The world edits it.

Maybe the best thing would be to forget being right or wrong about people and just go along for the ride. But if you can do that -- well, lucky you.

For discipline is imposed not just on oneself but on those in one's orbit.

Fear presides over these memories, a perpetual fear.Of course no childhood is without its terrors, yet I wonder if I would have been a less frightened boy if Lindbergh hadn't been president or if I hadn't been the offspring of Jews.

Nothing lasts and yet nothing passes either, and nothing passes just because nothing lasts.

I'm an Obama supporter. And if you're an Obama supporter that means you had a hard time during the Bush years.