The hard thing about death is that nothing ever changes. The hard thing about life is that nothing stays the same.

It's disconcerting to realize how little you have to say to someone who once occupied such a prominent place in your bed.

So much of the past in encapsulated in the odds and ends. Most of us discard more information about ourselves than we ever care to preserve. Our recollection of the past is not simply distorted by our faulty perception of events remembered but skewed by those forgotten. The memory is like twin orbiting stars, one visible, one dark, the trajectory of what's evident forever affected by the gravity of what's concealed.

I caution writers all the time to slow down and pay more attention to the work in front of them than to the end result. I don't think you write one book and get anywhere. I think you write five books and then maybe you are finally on the right path.

People talk about dysfunctional families; I've never seen any other kind.

Kinsey was never a lawyer. She's strictly blue collar.

My job as the writer is to fool you. Your job as the reader is to see if you can catch me at it.