It made me feel that I had to work very hard, but I've always felt I had to work very hard to get my own approval.

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

... don't ever underestimate people, don't ever underestimate the pleasure they receive from viewing pain that is not their own... Pain by itself is just Pain. But Pain + Distance can = entertainment, voyeurism, human interest, cinéma vérité, a good belly chuckle, a sympathetic smile, a raised eyebrow, disguised contempt.

I never bought the idea of individual genius from which the novel spews forth. It's always an act of curation.

She wore her sexuality with an older woman's ease, and not like an awkward purse, never knowing how to hold it, where to hang it, or when to just put it down.

People profess to have certain political positions, but their conservatism or liberalism is really the least interesting thing about them.

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