Until I was 42, I could fit everything that I owned into two suitcases.

Evil is the refusal to see one's self in others.

If you're going to immerse yourself in a project for three years, why not stake out a chunk of the world that is completely alien to you and go traveling?

My dream has always been to suspend myself in space when I write, and lying horizontal in bed is the closest to doing that.

I would say the flip side to my fascination with systems is a fascination with components. So many of my books are dialogues between little and big.

The loneliness of writing is that you baffle your friends and change the lives of strangers.

Only white men have the luxury of ignoring race.