The difference between me and you is that I do good fiction.

Two questions form the foundation of all novels: "What if?" and "What next?" (A third question, "What now?", is one the author asks himself every 10 minutes or so; but it's more a cry than a question.) Every novel begins with the speculative question, What if "X" happened? That's how you start.

America is the most inventive country in the world. Why? Because everybody has access to information. In the Soviet Union it was illegal to take a photograph of a train station. Look what happened to them.

Ice hockey is the closest thing to religion permitted by the Soviet Union.

There are people in government who don't want other people to know what they know. It's just another example of elitism. And I spit on elitism. Show me an elitist, and I'll show you a loser.

When I go to peoples' houses I like to sneak into their bedrooms and try on their underwear.

It's not right to say that our loss in Vietnam turned out to be a gain. But lessons were learned. And they were the right lessons.