Anything a man can do, I can fix.

What I've come to learn is that the world is never saved in grand messianic gestures, but in the simple accumulation of gentle, soft, almost invisible acts of compassion.

You know, you can steel your heart against any kind of trouble, any kind of horror. But the simple act of kindness from a complete stranger will unstitch you.

In this time of the Internet and nonfiction, to be on an actual bookshelf in an actual bookstore is exciting in itself.

What we know about who we are comes from stories. It's the agents of our imagination who really shape who we are.

The privilege of being a writer is that you have this opportunity to slow down and to consider things.

People think that writing is writing, but actually writing is editing. Otherwise, you're just taking notes

My friend Ronald Gottesman says...that the cause of all our trouble is the belief in an essential, pure identity: religious, ethnic, historical, ideological.

You can count on Scandinavian literature for a certain kind of darkness, a modern mythic style.

Men do communicate, often very directly, but women sometimes cannot accept how simple what we have to say is. We seldom play games--we aren't that sophisticated.

Before you speak, my friend, remember, a spiritual man contain his anger. Angry words are like slap in de face.

It doesn't matter where your journey begins, so long as you begin it...

I don't shoot anything. I could never kill an animal. My dad does all the hunting, and he eats everything that he kills.

First we only want to be seen, but once we’re seen, that’s not enough anymore. After that, we want to be remembered.

If you hate your job, don't worry, you won't have it for long.

An intense copper calm, like a universal yellow lotus, was more and more unfolding its noiseless measureless leaves upon the sea.

I write line by line, by the sound and the weight and the music of the words.

I saw a man clothed with rags . . . a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back.

I just think you should get married if you want to have some kids.

It is the second job of literature to create myth. But its first job is to destroy it.