I love reading fiction about people who are connecting intellectually. I find that exhilarating.

Anthropological fieldwork is so much like writing a novel. You don't know what the hell is going on.

I've always thought of writing as sort of active communication.

Was it possible in any relationship to not disappoint, to do anything more than only briefly rekindle the initial fatal illusion?

When I finished graduate school, the first George Bush was president, and I really wanted to get out of the country. We'd just gone through the first Gulf War.

I've also done things that put me in odd situations.

There are certain tribes in the middle Sepik that eat raw bat. A certain kind of raw bat is a delicacy.

Anthropologists are great at novelistic observations. I would be thrilled if this novel would encourage anthropologists to write what they see in fictional form.

Perhaps all science is merely self-investigation.

I'm very interested in the way people interact emotionally.

There are very few things I would love to do other than a life of writing, and I think being a singer-songwriter and being an anthropologist are the two other things I can imagine doing.

(Georgie) Why is it that you always want to run after the one that goes off in a huff, and push away the one who is clinging to you?

In the big scheme of things, a little love is all we need

Fred Astaire is the Carioca, the Continental, the very Piccolino of romance.

I think sometimes women are stuck in a type. I've never dated the same type. I fall in love with personalities, and they come in different packages.

Government is the political representative of a natural equilibrium, of custom, of inertia; it is by no means a representative of reason.

I mean, I always feel incredibly lucky to get a job.

I make my weaknesses my strengths and my stengths stronger.

People don't trust the federal government as it relates to health care.

Perhaps the longest journey is the journey within.

I never wanted the ha-ha-ha laughter [at my shows]. I always aimed for the gut. I always aimed for the pretty girls in the front row, laughing and leaning over and pooting.