To go on and on about your soul is to miss the whole point of life. I could say that with more certainty if I knew the whole point of life.

Literature and art are one of a number of relationships I have with the world. Like you have relationships with your friends and a relationship with your lover and your relationship with your family and your relationship with your work - sometimes it's really great; sometimes it's non-existent, sometimes it's fruitful.

It's fun to give pleasure to people.

He’s just another man who wants to teach me something.

Writing fiction is a good way to inhabit other minds, if not other lives.

There was not an awareness of pop culture in the household. There was a lot of respect for working hard, and for intellectual and professional achievement.

I feel like one can have all of that as a writer; you're writing, you're reading, you're talking to interesting and intelligent people. Your life is structured around whatever book you're writing, and so is your reading and so are many of your conversations.