I felt that, in some ways, my novels lacked heart because of the distance between me and the subject matter. But no one wants to read a book based on good health, a happy upbringing, a long marriage.

There's solace in the thought that I will never finish missing her.

There is no remedy for death--or birth--except to hug the spaces in between. Live loud. Live wide. Live tall.

To ask a novelist to talk about his novels is like asking somebody to cook about their dancing.

These are the stories that we tell ourselves and only ourselves, and they are better left unshared.

...crushed between the fears of going forward and the dread of going back.

Secrets are like pregnancies hereabouts. You can hide them for a while but then they will start screaming.

Try pitching a story of happiness to your editors and their toes are going to curl up.

Retiring from writing is not to retire from life, but retiring from writing is to avoid the inevitable bitterness which a writing career is bound to deliver as its end product, in almost every case.

My father had osteomyelitis-his left arm was withered between his elbow and his shoulder ... . But the amputation of a Stone Age man called Leaf, a stoneworker, does not relate to my father at all.

To the wizard death is merely a belief.

Emotions tend to get in the way of a good argument.

There is a hopeless longing for nostalgia that pervades the human soul, a return to the warm glow of remembrance or some imagined past.

It’s the oldest story in the world. You want him back, don’t you?

I think that there is a relatively small number of people who are pushing for independence in Taiwan.

The target audience goes back to conception. That means pre-natal care, safe delivery, post-natal screening, and the ordinary stuff you do in pediatrics.

Lord, I feel so small sometimes in this great big old world. Yeah, I know there are more important things. But don't forget to remember me.

We're all outsiders in a way. We're all alone and can become very lonely

Men are themselves the source of their own fortune and misfortune.

Now I have close to a million followers on Twitter, which is crazy because I don't even know how to spell. But it definitely forces me to think more about the "we" factor.