Your life doesn't mean what you have or what you get. Its what your'e willing to give up.

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.

For a time after my divorce everything began to seem profoundly ironic to me. I found myself thinking of other peoples' worries as sources of amusement and private derision which I thought about at night to make myself feel better.

When I write a novel I start each morning by reading for 20 minutes.

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.

It is right that you have to have a tolerance for solitude. But when that solitude bears fruit, you can abandon it. You can be in the company of others.

Reading is probably what leads most writers to writing.