The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture, because it seeks to turn other ideas - uncertainty, progress, change - into crimes.

It may be argued that the past is a country from which we have all emigrated, that its loss is part of our common humanity.

Airport security exists to guard us against terrorist attacks.

Sometimes writing a novel is not unlike having a baby. You'd have to ask a female novelist to compare the pain.

Among the great struggles of man-good/evil, reason/unreason, etc.-there is also this mighty conflict between the fantasy of Home and the fantasy of Away, the dream of roots and the mirage of the journey.

I've never read anything so badly written that got published. It made 'Twilight' look like 'War and Peace.'

People are always telling me that they've seen people reading my books on the subway, or the beach, or whenever.