I like to buy books for the kids in my family. I guess that's why they call me the 'mean' aunt.

Your memories from your early childhood seem to have such purchase on your emotions. They are so concrete.

Occupy Wall Street means making Wall Street and the corporate power elite understand that the people affected by the binge of unregulated greed are not going away, and they are not going to give up.

All roads lead to Wall Street, but we feel the effects of Wall Street on every street corner. Certainly in Syracuse, N.Y., where I live.

The issue isn't, Am I good enough? No. The issue is, Do I not have any other choice? Will and desire don't matter. Ability doesn't matter. Need is the only thing that matters.

The novel is about, for me, sustained and organized looking. I do think that people have a hunger for a sustained engagement, that concentration that the book can offer.

I am always trying to do something new and different. The first step is curiosity, questions. You pay attention to what fascinates you. If you can't shake it, there is something there.

In order to be a living, breathing thing, a novel has to be failed in some kind of way. Or at least that's how I keep writing them.

I have to say that movies have as much impact on me as music. And that I learned as much about narrative from movies as I did from reading novels, how to arrange stories, how to juxtapose things.

A good novel should be deeply unsettling - its satisfactions should come from its authenticity and its formal coherence. We must feel something crucial is at stake.

Yes, I did try acting when I was in high school and I was terrible at it. So I definitely have had the experience of being bad at artistic endeavor.

People believe unbelievable things because it's self-flattering to think that you are intellectually daring enough to accept what others find preposterous.

The messages must be stuck somewhere in the tube of light underneath the ocean that connects London and New York.

Are there moments when I see unrequited crushes or ex-boyfriends slow dancing with their dates and kind of want to stab myself in the spleen with a salad fork? Yeah, sure.

To say that my dad pushed me is an understatement. I was never naturally drawn to football.

The ancient path of communion with God is knowing what He's really like. And prayer is simply keeping company with God.

The splendid discontent of God With chaos made the world. And from the discontent of man The worlds best progress springs.

You can kill a revolutionary, but you cannot kill a revolution.

Please... tell me who you are and what you want. And if you think those are simple questions, keep in mind that most people live their entire lives without arriving at an answer.

Racing is the only time I feel whole.

I'd like to be remembered as someone who was a champion of peace and human rights.