I believe that God locates himself at the spot where you recognize your own fallibility....And the paradox of it all has been that whenever I give up I seem to do better.

I judged about a zillion awards this year so Ive been reading a lot of books that just came out.

I'm trying to read more dead people because I keep having to read stuff for juries and so forth.

I suppose I should say that I treasure blasphemy, as a faith of the highest order.

I'm trying to make sure that there's comedy as well as sadness. It makes the sadness more memorable.

I am excited by... the new novel by Samantha Hunt. She's a writer I really admire a lot.

Cool is spent. Cool is empty. Cool is ex post facto. When advertisers and pundits hoard a word, you know it's time to retire from it. To move on. I want to suggest, therefore, that we begin to avoid cool now. Cool is a trick to get you to buy garments made by sweatshop laborers in Third World countries. Cool is the Triumph of the Will. Cool enables you to step over bodies. Cool enables you to look the other way. Cool makes you functional, eager for routine distraction, passive, doped, stupid.