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.

The 'information novel' shouldn't be a curiosity. It should be absolutely mainstream.

Librarian is a service occupation. Gas station attendant of the mind.

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.

Music forecasts the past, recalls the future. Now and then the difference falls away, and in one simple gift of circling sound, the ear solves the scrambled cryptogram. One abiding rhythm, present and always, and you're free. But a few measures more, and the cloak of time closes back around you.

I keep a quotes journal - of every sentence that I've wanted to remember from my reading of the past 30 years.

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