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.

Fear and hope are alike underneath.

The pace of life feels morally dangerous to me.

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

I've been mainly a happy boy in my life. I married the right girl and we did what we wanted to do.

It's been my habit of mind, over these years, to understand that every situation in which human beings are involved can be turned on its head. Everything someone assures me to be true might not be. Every pillar of belief the world rests on may or may not be about to explode. Most things don't stay the way they are very long. Knowing this, however, has not made me cynical. Cynical means believing that good isn't possible; and I know for a fact that good is. I simply take nothing for granted and try to be ready for the change that's soon to come.

At the exact moment any decision seems to be being made, it's usually long after the real decision was actually made--like light we see emitted from stars.