When a human being becomes a set of data on a website like Facebook, he or she is reduced. Everything shrinks. Individual character. Friendships. Language. Sensibility.

Those beliefs about the essential goodness or beauty of the world are fundamentally paper-thin bullshit. There's not an essential belief that isn't a contingent belief. It could all be destroyed in a second, at any second. And I have an issue with that.

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

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

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.

When the male organ of a man stands erect, two thirds of his intelect go away. And one third of his religion.

We cannot love something solely because it has been ignored. It must also be worthy of our attention.