At first, I spend about four hours a day writing. Toward the end of a book, I spend up to 16 hours a day on it, because all I want to do is make it good and get it done.

Public education rests precariously on the skill and virtue of the people at the bottom of the institutional pyramid.

The problem is fundamental... It is as if a secret committee, now lost to history, has made a study of children and, having figured out what the greatest number were least disposed to declared that all of them should do it.

I think if the writing comes too easily, it shows - it's usually hard to read.

How could a just God permit great misery? The Haitian peasants answered with a proverb: "Bondye konn bay, men li pa konn separe," in literal translation, "God gives but doesn't share." This meant... God gives us humans everything we need to flourish, but he's not the one who's supposed to divvy up the loot. That charge was laid upon us.

I've gotta keep life and computers separate, or else I'm gonna go mad.

What interests me is trying to catch the reflection of the human being on the page. I'm interested in how ordinary people live their lives