I think that if the novel's task is to describe where we find ourselves and how we live now, the novelist must take a good, hard look at the most central facts of contemporary life - technology and science.

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.

All the different ways we know the world all come from the brain, and they all depend on each other to make sense.

The Midwest is such a tabula rasa.

Only white men have the luxury of ignoring race.

I like to travel and connect.

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