In this country American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.

I'm just trying to look at something without blinking, to see what it is like, or it could have been like, and how that had something to do with the way we live now. Novels are always inquiries for me.

When there is pain, there are no words. All pain is the same.

What do you say? There really are no words for that. There really aren't. Somebody tries to say, 'I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.' People say that to me. There's no language for it. Sorry doesn't do it. I think you should just hug people and mop their floor or something.

I write the way women have babies. You don't know it's going to be like that. If you did, there's no way you would go through with it.

When a child walks in the room, your child or anybody else’s child, do your eyes light up? That’s what they’re looking for.

Shallow believers prefer a shallow God.