I turned forty, and Im finally going to get married and maybe have a kid.

I have worked really hard to defy categorization, to break down a taxonomy whenever it comes my way.

Impotence, fetishism, bisexuality, and bondage are all facts of life, and our fiction should reflect that.

The past was so past it hurt.

I think literature is best when it's voicing what we would prefer not to talk about.

I am in Boston right now, in fact, to do work at the New England Historical Genealogical Library, where I'm trying to finish up tracing my lineage back to the seventeenth century.

I suppose I should say that I treasure blasphemy, as a faith of the highest order.

Genre is a bookstore problem, not a literary problem.

I judged about a zillion awards this year so Ive been reading a lot of books that just came out.

It's also true, however, that having conquered the regional writer ghetto, I am now intent on conquering the nationalist writer ghetto and moving out into the world more.

I'm trying to read more dead people because I keep having to read stuff for juries and so forth.

Suicide is the utmost sincere and candid apology to the ones you hurt most

Mature Woman: Is a woman who has lived her life enough to understand what she wants, and she is confident in knowing who she is without question.

Your patience would fail you if I should continue to relate all the disrespectful speeches and treatment which your servants have been obliged to listen to and patiently to bear.

Some types of nothing are more fun than other types of nothing.

It is a device of mine never to grudge trouble in the pursuit of what seems to me really good and never to grudge payment for it afterwards.

Wilson stopped and stood silent. Inattention dies a quick and sure death when a speaker does that.

Learning should never stop for all age groups. We can empower millions to realize the opportunity to help shape a new society of creative 'mentorologists' in all areas of life.

However, in recent years our nation has seen a sizable influx of illegal immigration that at best highlights some alarming inadequacies and at worst indicates a broken system.

If we seek paradise outside ourselves, we cannot have paradise in our hearts.

If I don't survive," I say, "tell Tobias I didn't want to leave him.