Write about something you don't know. And don't be scared, ever.

Unless carefree, mother love was a killer.

I feel like today we always glorify the young, just-plucked-from-college writer. But it's much harder to start writing later, in middle age, struggling on a book around a full-time job and family.

In becoming an American, from Europe, what one has in common with that other immigrant is contempt for me-it's nothing else but color.

We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.

Something that is loved is never lost.

I sometimes lose interest in the characters and get much more interested in the trees and animals.