I think I write about things that are mysterious to me.

People forget years and remember moments.

When I was teaching at Harvard in the 1970s, I went to Project Incorporated in Cambridge and took photography classes. I didn't even know how to aim the camera in those days.

Because I don’t work with an outline, writing a story is like crossing a stream, now I’m on this rock, now I’m on this rock, now I’m on this rock.

Clichés so often befall vain people.

I think almost always that what gets me going with a story is the atmosphere, the visual imagery, and then I people it with characters, not the other way around.

I don't write about things that I have the answers to or things that are very close to home. It just wouldn't be any adventure. It wouldn't have any vitality.

There is some reason, obviously, that you are drawn to your material, but the way in which you explore it might come to be quite different from what you would expect.

Nobody can assume that, to a writer, everything is off-limits.

I like a lot of Margaret Atwood, I like much of Alice Munro. Again, if you were to ask me about male writers, there's often a novel I admire, but not all of their works.

It's often been said that I'm an extremely depressing, cynical writer. I've never known what to make of that.

If books are not good company, where shall I find it?

...you can use words if you wish, but I'm warning you - I've learned how to read your heart ...

In Seattle, they have a saying: 'If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes and then shoot yourself in the face.'

If I die soon, don't ever say I died too young.

To trace the history of a river . . . is to trace the history of the soul, the history of the mind descending and arising in the body.

This is a case if the President is permitted to be above the law, then we no longer have a republic.

Fantasy is the oldest form of literature and science fiction is just a new twist on it.

Ability is nothing without opportunity.

It is awfully hard work doing nothing.

It was amazing how these events lost their impact, translated through the flat gaze of a video screen.