Fiction is the truth inside the lie.

I've never seen novels as built things. I have a tendency to see them as found things so that I always feel a little bit like an archaeologist who's working to get some fragile fossil out of the ground. And the more you get out unbroken, the better you succeed.

The bad ideas kind of just drop out of the mix. You forget about them. The good ones stick around.

You can't be careful on a skateboard.

In the years since, I've discovered there's a lot to be said for boredom.

But then fall comes, kicking summer out on its treacherous ass as it always does one day sometime after the midpoint of September, it stays awhile like an old friend that you have missed. It settles in the way an old friend will settle into your favorite chair and take out his pipe and light it and then fill the afternoon with stories of places he has been and things he has done since last he saw you.

Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.