I think sometimes writers must attempt to communicate the incommunicable, because, whether they wish it or not, they're the ones to whom it falls.

Literary prizes serve a purpose if they allow for discussion of books.

A good book ... leaves you wanting to reread the book. A great book compels you to reread your own soul.

I do not share the pessimism of the age about the novel. They are one of our greatest spiritual, aesthetic and intellectual inventions. As a species it is story that distinguishes us, and one of the supreme expressions of story is the novel. Novels are not content. Nor are they are a mirror to life or an explanation of life or a guide to life. Novels are life, or they are nothing.

I think empathy's a terrible danger for a writer.

The fallacy is that you have to hold some sort of stake in the grief or horror in order to write about it - I think the opposite is true.

In the end you're not made or broken by prizes. Your relationship is with your readers, not a prize, and you just have to keep on honoring that.