All tastes are expressions of belief.

Writing is my way of expressing - and thereby eliminating - all the various ways we can be wrong-headed.

First rule of writing: When still a child, make sure you read a lot of books. Spend more time doing this than anything else.

The last page of [Lincoln in the Bardo] - without giving too much away - involves somebody entering somebody else. Not in a sexual way. But it says one of the simplest things you could ever say, which is that we must try and be inside each other. We must have some kind of feeling for each other and enter into each other's experience.

World makers, social network makers, ask one question first: 'How can I do it?'

It was in the air, or so it seemed to Kiki, this hatred of women and their bodies- it seeped in with every draught in the house; people brought it home on their shoes, they breathed it in off their newspapers. There was no way to control it.

Nowadays, I know the true reason I read is to feel less alone, to make a connection with a consciousness other than my own.