Even the most innocent person, when cornered, is capable of a heartless crime.

There are people who are willing to work within the system, and people who don't want to work with the system at all.

What is revolution except a systematic way for one species to eat another alive?

There is a certain amount of politeness here in America, which is probably more than just politeness.

She wonders if this is what people call falling in love, the desire to be with someone for every minute of the rest of her life so strong that sometimes she is frightened of herself.

Your characters are always your children. And while you are writing, you're keeping them safe. Now they're ready to go into the world and it's sad. I'm happy with the way the novel came out but all the characters' ending really saddened me.

Almost all of the stories in The Matchmaker, the Apprentice, and the Football Fan are told in the first person, yet, depending on the angle and distance of the narrator, they exert different effects. The best are those in which the speaker never poses as an objective outsider. (...) Other stories are damaged by the urge to distance the narrator.