I'm a novelist, period. An American novelist.

I like the construction of sentences and the juxtaposition of words-not just how they sound or what they mean, but even what they look like.

I think more than writers, the major influences on me have been European movies, jazz, and Abstract Expressionism.

We seem to believe it is possible to ward off death by following rules of good grooming.

As technology advances in complexity and scope, fear becomes more primitive.

No sense of the irony of human experience, that we are the highest form of life on earth, and yet ineffably sad because we know what no other animal knows, that we must die.

I've come to think of Europe as a hardcover book, America as the paperback version.

I don’t want your candor. I want your soul in a silver thimble.

What we are reluctant to touch often seems the very fabric of our salvation.

California deserves whatever it gets. Californians invented the concept of life-style. This alone warrants their doom.

A writer takes earnest measures to secure his solitude and then finds endless ways to squander it.

This world is white no longer and it will never be white again.

Growing up, I really liked 'Star Wars.' Han Solo would've been really cool to meet. But my stuff was real low-brow. I was watching 'Bugs Bunny.'

I go into my library and all history unrolls before me.

You don't believe in organized religion, yet a major theme in so many of your works seems to be a quest for God.

Millions of American families are dealing with teenage pregnancy... It is true that some Americans will judge Governor Palin and her family. There's nothing anyone can do about it.

I feel that I speak the musical language.

The God of Quran is trying to unskin Muslims from their humanity. Muslims are good people. But their God is absolutely bad.

I'm not a quick study, so I'm always struggling for my words right up until.

That we must all die, we always knew, I wish I had sooner remembred it.

I feel much alarmed at the prospect of seeing General Jackson President. He is the most unfit man I know for such a place.