It's so disappointing, to put it mildly, that people know so much about my life. Because it means that they're always trying to look at my books in terms of my life.

The answer to religion is not no religion, but another way of thinking of it. Another way of being in it.

The First Amendment defends all forms of speech including hate speech, which is why groups like Ku Klux Klan are allowed to utter their poisonous remarks.

Bread and books: food for the body and food for the soul - what could be more worthy of our respect, and even love?

When I'm writing books, something weird happens; and the result is the books contain a large amount of what you could call 'supernaturalism.' As a writer, I find I need that to explain the world I'm writing about.

What I've always tried to find in my books are points at which the private lives of the characters, and also my own, intersect with the public life of the culture.

A little bit of one story joins onto an idea from another, and hey presto, . . . not old tales but new ones. Nothing comes from nothing.