When I was young, I was very technical about these things. I didn't like to admit to any intimate relation with what I was writing.

The very reason I write is so that I might not sleepwalk through my entire life.

Oh, I know that. You know me, baby, I cannot be broken. Takes a giant to snap me in half.

We cannot be all the writers all the time. We can only be who we are. Which leads me to my second point: writers do not write what they want, they write what they can.

The golden age of Luncheon Vouchers ended ten yearsago. For ten years Mickey had been saying, "The goldenage of Luncheon Vouchers is over." And that's what Archieloved about O'Connell's. Everything was remembered,nothing was lost. History was never revised orreinterpreted, adapted or whitewashed. It was as solid andas simple as the encrusted egg on the clock.

If you're going to write a good book, you have to make mistakes and you have to not be so cautious all the time.

For me, George Saunders novel [Lincoln in the Bardo] is about a problem of pain.