I don't want to be taken to Bhutan and smell the flowers. I want to be told something I couldn't have been told any other way.

I'm trying to cause people to be interested in the particulars of their lives because I think that's one thing literature can do for us. It can say to us: pay attention. Pay closer attention. Pay stricter attention to what you say to your son.

For, how else to seize such an instant? How to shout out into the empty air just the right words, and on cue? Frame a moment to last a lifetime?

If you lose all hope, you can always find it again.

Paul Ryan's just a really, deeply evil little creature. But he's not little; he's actually quite tall, I'm sorry to see. I'm always sorry when really bad guys are tall.

You can't write ... on the strength of influence. You can only write a good story or a good novel by yourself.

I wouldn't be a very good writer if someone hadn't taught me how to read.