I've given up reading the papers. Since the world's so obviously bent on killing itself, I decided months ago to sit back and let it.

Respect your characters, even the ­minor ones. In art, as in life, everyone is the hero of their own particular story; it is worth thinking about what your minor characters' stories are, even though they may intersect only slightly with your protagonist's.

I knew Id always be a second-rate academic, and I thought, Well, Id rather be a second-rate novelist or even a third-rate one.

For was that all, she thought bleakly, that love ever was? Something that saved one from loneliness? A sort of insurance policy against not counting?

Being in love, you know... it's not like having a canary, in a cage. When you lose one sweetheart, you can't just go out and get another to replace her.

All I can do is write about whatever grabs me.

I used to hate flying. I would sit there, rigid, convinced that if I relaxed, the plane would drop out of the sky.