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

All novels attempt to cut neural routes through the brain, to convince us that down this road the true future of the novel lies.

It's got two aspects. The bit that involves the public life I could not really tolerate and cannot really tolerate. I just can't get used to the idea of being somebody unreal in people's minds. I can't live my life like that.

But it makes an immigrant laugh to hear the fears of the nationalist, scared of infection, penetration, miscegenation, when this is small fry, peanuts, compared to what the immigrant fears - dissolution, disappearance.

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

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.

You can feel bad... I mean, that's not illegal.