On the streets, unrequited love and death go together almost as often as in Shakespeare.

The purpose of narrative is to present us with complexity and ambiguity.

I tend to write in the mornings.

I count myself as one of millions of Americans whose life simply would not be the same without the libraries that supported my learning.

Poison Pill is a great reading. The novel ranges from Russian oligarchs to the American worlds of drug research and the equity markets, all of it in a mode of high suspense.

After a week, it's better. I miss her. I mourn her. But some peace has returned. She had been so unattainable - so young, so much a citizen of a different era - that it is hard to feel fully deprived.

I adore the company of other writers because they are so often lively minds and, frequently, blazingly funny. And of course, we get each other in a unique way.