It is psychologically very hard to go through life without the justification, and the hope, provided by religion.

An idea you have might not be original. But by creating a novel out of that idea you can make it original.

When the poet is in love, he is incapable of writing poetry on love. He has to write when he remembers that he was in love.

I seem to know all the cliches, but not how to put them together in a believable way. Or else these stories are terrible and grandiose precisely because all the cliches intertwine in an unrealistic way and you can't disentangle them. But when you actually live a cliche, it feels brand new, and you are unashamed.

There is only one thing that you write for yourself, and that is a shopping list.

I am not on Facebook and on Twitter because the purpose of my life is to avoid messages. I receive too many messages from the world, and so I try to avoid that.

"Then we are living in a place abandoned by God," I said, disheartened. "Have you found any places where God would have felt at home?" William asked me, looking down from his great height.