America has always been a nation of small places, and as we lose them, we're losing part of ourselves.

If my career continues along its current arc, people will probably look at me and see a writer who is obsessed with the relationship between rich and poor and with how the rich somehow or other always manage to betray the poor, even when they don't mean to.

People often ask me how I make things funny. I don't make things funny.

Whatever you're working on, take small bites. The task will not be overwhelming if you can reduce it to its smallest component.

You just kind of have faith. If that sounds kind of mystical, it's because I really don't know how it works, but I trust that it does. I try to write the way I read, in order to find out what happens next.

I think a lot of what is going on with kids who get pushed too far and attempt either murder or suicide is that they are trying to deal with their own non-existence for the people who are supposed to care most for them.

And there comes a time in your life when you realize that if you don't take the opportunity to be happy, you may never get another chance again.