I've always relied on producing more material than I need. With each of my published novels I've written around four times the amount of material that's ended up in the book.

As a person, I do ascribe to a lot of magical thinking myself.

In the end, fiction is the craft of telling truth through lies.

While writing, writers are living inside a character or characters, and when the book ekes into the world, writers are living inside the reader. That's more than connecting.

Amor animi arbitrio sumitu, non ponitur; we choose to love; we do not choose to cease loving.

Who, in the midst of passion, is vigilant against illness? Who listens to the reports of recently decimated populations in Spain, India, Bora Bora, when new lips, tongues and poems fill the world?

If there's a black cat that crosses the street in my path, I will turn around and walk 20 minutes out of my way to not cross it.

Depressing thought: my friends were the girls I ate lunch with, all buddies from kindergarten who knew one another so well we weren't sure if we even liked one another anymore.

Sometimes you have to let time carry you past your troubles.

I'm a private person, a shy person. Sometimes, reading for eleven hours straight feels to me like the perfect way to spend a day.

I love Twitter. It's like having a closet full of clever friends that you can visit twice a day, then shove back into the darkness when you're tired of them.

Because Filipinos are very creative and assiduous people, they will always find a way to make things happen.

There are two forces in the universe: fear and love. Trust is part of love because it makes you feel safe, and it is only in this state that you are capable of love.

Facing him as I lower the glass from my lips, he's giving me one of those intense moonlit stares.

Faith, for me, isn't an argument, a catechism, a philosophical “proof.” It is instead a lens, a way of experiencing life, and a willingness to act.

Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way.

This is our great covenant: To dwell together in peace, To seek the truth in love, And to help one another.

The greatest thrill in my life was to represent the United States of America.

Laughing can serve you in dark moments and even help you crawl your way back out.

I like working as a director most.

Wrong people are wrong not because of their faults but because of their presumed virtues.