There's a perception that novels can't usually allow for your kind of absolute attention to detail.

You become a different writer when you approach a short story. When things are not always having to represent other things, you find real human beings begin to cautiously appear on your pages.

Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.

Every moment happens twice: inside and outside, and they are two different histories.

Asking why rappers always talk about their stuff is like asking why Milton is forever listing the attributes of heavenly armies. Because boasting is a formal condition of the epic form. And those taught that they deserve nothing rightly enjoy it when they succeed in terms the culture understands.

It made me feel that I had to work very hard, but I've always felt I had to work very hard to get my own approval.

There's a perception that novels can't usually allow for your kind of absolute attention to detail.