An essential part of power is the freedom not to think too deeply

For example, you have these grotesque, hilarious, profane ghosts in the book [Lincoln in the Bardo]. Even the concept of talking ghosts is, from an aesthetic point of view, grotesque. But you seem compelled by that risk in order to get to the other end of the equation.

It's still easier to find the correct Hoover bag than to find one pure person, one pure faith, on the globe.

For ridding oneself of faith is like boiling seawater to retrieve the salt--something is gained but something is lost.

Everything shrinks. Individual character. Friendships. Language. Sensibility.

Don't live in a way that makes you feel dead.

And it's just anathema to being a writer. It's not healthy. But in another way, when I'm writing, what it's about for me is being good on the page. None of that noise could change the way I feel about my writing. Which is not always particularly positive.