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.

I wouldn't write about people who are living and who are close to me, because I think it's a very violent thing to do to another person. And anytime I have done it, even in the disguise of fiction, the results have been horrific.

The past is always tense, the future perfect.

You don't come to live here unless the delusion of a reality shaped around your own desires isn't a strong aspect of your personality. A reality shaped around your own desires - there is something sociopathic in that ambition.

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

...They cannot escape their history any more than you yourself can lose your shadow.

[George Saunders] is very precise about what he is doing. There isn't a thing left to chance.