I seem to have a talent for writing endings that seem just right to me but that frustrate other people.

More than periods where I don't write anything, I have periods where I just write junk and I know I'm writing junk but I can't stop.

Novels are a kind of experiment in selfhood, for the reader as well as for the author.

You never want to have to give your child bad news of any kind.

Kenneth Branagh. There was a time in my life when people would tell me constantly that I look like him. I could do a lot worse than that.

New York is ultimately not the synthesis but merely the sum of its unfathomable subjectivities, its personal histories, its uncategorisable figures.

You should not really entertaining anyone else, but trying to be yourself, because there are already more good books than you or I could ever read in our lifetime.

I personally feel I still have so much to learn as a writer; each novel is better than the one before, just because I'm getting better at it.

I once saw John Updike get in front of a crowd and read a story that he'd written in 1958, and I just thought, I can't even look at stuff I wrote a year ago, I can't believe he's doing this.

That's a long way of saying no, I'm always too bound up in thinking about the characters in whatever I'm working on and trying to make good to dwell on characters from previous books.

Luckily for you, you can close the book The Postman Always Rings Twice and break out of it, and James M. Cain can't. I can't think of any redeeming feature he has, but he's extremely compelling.

Show me a fantasy novel about Chernobyl--there isn't one! Because reality is more fantastic.

When you're brown and Indian, you get offered a lot of doctor roles.

Our children need to see and hear about more black role models in many fields so they can make better choices.

If at first you don't succeed, redefine success.

Religion is sort of like a lift in your shoes. If it makes you feel better, fine. Just don't ask me to wear your shoes.

There is one—how would you put it—loophole.” “Loophole? More like a giant cavern if I have wings.

Our thoughts create our reality - where we put our focus is the direction we tend to go.

Time is the moving imago of the unmoving eternity.

Silence is an answer to a wise man.

When I was starting as an anime director I wanted to be known for great things. I never wanted to be known for some overblown toy commercial.