I'm shocked and surprised by people that are shocked and surprised that certain things in life are made up or not as true as you might believe them to be.

Everybody is so goddamn sure of themselves, it just makes you realize this is the curse of the modern world.

Fellini is a just a province kid. Rome exists for Fellini, not the other way around.

I don't think anybody does anything anymore without commenting on why they're doing it or making fun of it as they're doing it.

Most book things now (with a few exceptions) are just built around nice, safe books written for nice and safe book club readers. These are usually the books you see on display at Barnes and Noble. These Internet writers are like literary terrorists to me. They're training as we speak. They're getting ready to invade. They're building an army.

The whole exploitation thing is funny, too. Exploitation is the nature of the world, isn't it?

Writing should be like skirts. Long enough to cover what it needs to cover and short enough to maintain interest.