I've always written about animals. I'm still trying to process why that is.

I grew up in Cyprus and Egypt, these fantastic places I remember fondly.

I do no writing while I'm in Belgrade visiting my grandma.

For me it was a lot harder to come to terms with the death of my grandfather than it was to come to terms with what's happened to the former Yugoslavia.

The best fiction stays with you and changes you.

My grandfather and I were very close.

A family has its own rituals and its own superstitions.

Come on, is your heart a sponge or a fist?

We're all entitled to our superstitions.

My mother always says that fear and pain are immediate, and that, when they're gone we're left with the concept, but not the true memory.

I think the mythology of death really ran away with me when I was very young.

The madder it makes you, the harder you need to laugh at it.

You’re a biological wonder without precedent.

Money is my military, each dollar a soldier. I never send my money into battle unprepared and undefended. I send it to conquer and take currency prisoner and bring it back to me.

America must dream again, and have the faith to achieve the dream.

The girl or the world, you see someone gotta lose. I thought I could have it all, do I really gotta choose?

The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that, you've got it made.

Stupidity is without anxiety.

My theory is that when you're famous, you're no different from anybody else - it's just that more people know your name.

Why aren't more gems from our great authors scattered over the country? Great books aren't within everybody's reach.

When an objection cannot be made formidable, there is some policy in trying to make it frightful; and to substitute the yell and the war-whoop, in the place of reason, argument and good order.