The world is a more engaging and less dramatic place than writers ever give it credit for being

Most things don't stay the way they are very long.

And I think that in myself (and perhaps evident in what I write) fear of loss and the corresponding instinct to protect myself against loss are potent forces.

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

Very early you come to the realization that nothing will ever take you away from yourself.

Marry somebody you love and who thinks you being a writer's a good idea.

The past is the prism through which we see a great, great, great deal of ourselves; it's a useful prism. It doesn't mean that we're fascinated by the dead or that we're fascinated by things that are settled. It is just one place where we can go to understand ourselves in the present.