All my adult life, if I didn't have several hours a day to sit in a room by myself, I would get antsy and irritable.

They lived in a great city, a metropolis of many narratives that converged briefly and then separated for ever, discovering their different dooms in that crowd of stories through which all of us, following our own destinies, had to push and shove to find our way through, or out.

My heart broke open and history fell in.

Human beings, you see, do absolutely two primary things. We see like and unlike. Like becomes, in literature, simile and metaphor. Unlike becomes uniqueness and difference, from which I believe, the novel is born.

I have been a film buff all my life and believe that the finest cinema is fully the equal of the best novels.

My grandmother was very fierce and gruff. She was quite small, but she was very wide.

Actually, I don't even like parties. I would much prefer a room with four friends who sit around and have dinner. I detest nightclubs. And I don't like places where the noise is so loud you can't talk to people.