From beginning to end, the novel [Dissemblers] took about three and a half years to write. I didn't write it chronologically.

I knew the basic outline of the novel [The Dissemblers] and would write whatever scene of the book I felt particularly excited about at the time.

I lived in New Mexico until I was seventeen, and honestly I've been homesick ever since I left.

I do think that it is one of the eternal questions about art, though - is all art intrinsically selfish?

Does art play a role in the greater good of society, or does it just promote the satisfaction of the artist? I go back and forth on that question.

The motivation to paint seems more pure, or at least more personal, when the artist is doing it for herself.

I've spent many a day worrying that I will never be able to write again!

I am a tragically bad artist.

I did take one drawing class in school, but for this book I spent a lot of time talking to painters and asking them silly questions.

I read letters and journal entries by [Georgia] O'Keeffe (which were infinitely more useful than any critical analysis of her work).

The book [The Dissemblers] officially came out two weeks after my thirtieth birthday...am I still young?

But far more numerous was the herd of such, Who think too little, and who talk too much.

Nothing releases like forgive. Nothing renews like forget.

Everyone wants to be open and inclusive, but nobody wants to pay for it. It's the biggest roadblock to translating living writers, especially poets.

How did you go bankrupt?" Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.

Playing football is very simple, but playing simple football is the hardest thing there is.

Avoiding complexity reduces bugs.

Beef is not what Jay said to Nas; Beef is when the working folks can't find jobs.

I really had spent my whole life playing soccer, and the fact that I was willing to give that up for theater, that told me I was moving in that direction.

Herein lies the main objective of portraiture and also its main difficulty. The photographer probes for the innermost. The lens sees only the surface... .

Manage the cause, not the result.