Writing is the only thing I've ever done with persistence, except for being married.

She was an artist. She held opposites in her mind.

America beats on you so hard the whole time. You are constantly being pummeled by other people's rights and their sense of patriotism.

Maybe I'm a serial regional writer. First here, then there, across the map.

I started reading literature at 17 or 18, and I felt this extra beat to life.

In order to write novels for a living - it's not pathological, but I do think and worry and brood and fidget about stuff that I'm working on.

If Trump was just a piddly-ass little hotel owner some place, having the kind of character and manners that he has, he would not be worth our notice. But because he's now been based to this huge stage, then his dimensions become immense. He's not a tragic figure because he doesn't have the capacity to be tragic. But the consequences of his life and his self now are immense; they're threatening to the world and to the sanctity of human life.