I didn't read a serious book until I was 19.

I know you can dream your way through an otherwise fine life, and never wake up, which is what I almost did.

At heart, of course, a story itself is consolation's instrument.

Someone ... tell us what's important, because we no longer know.

Most things don't stay the way they are for very long. I take nothing for granted and try to be ready for the change that's soon to come.

Only sometimes you can't feel anything about a subject without hypothesizing its extinction.

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.