I very much like people. I don't much like writers who don't.

It turns out that our intuition is a greater genius than we are.

The longer you go by yourself the weirder you get, and the weirder you get the longer you go by yourself.

I think there's a playfulness and a distance to Kavalier and Clay that I don't aspire to in my stuff. Maybe I'm more old-fashioned, and less of a fabulist, in that way.

What makes us threaten the things we want most?

She thought she'd put up with however many years of stonewalling for a good reason, and she'd just figured out that as far as Castle Hubby went, she hadn't even crossed the moat yet.

I do find stories - or literary fiction - an apt form for analyzing the world. And especially for trying to imagine the other. An agenda, again, that seems more important now than ever.

I think fiction is all about the exercise of the empathetic imagination. Part of what I do is let the stuff I read about meld with what I have experienced.

Disasters occur organically in my work, in that that's the way my thinking tends, more than that's what I start out by planning. I'm sort of a catastrophist.

Class is the most taboo subject in America. The American media would rather talk about race or perversion or anything else considered taboo before class.

Christy has not been given a fair shake. She has not been identified as a competent premier.

The pain I feel now is the happiness I had before. That's the deal.

People can't change. We're pre-programmed robots going through the motions. We're the same at death as we are at birth.

To keep your character intact you cannot stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time.

I had long hair when I was a teenager.

I may not be a politician, but I will fight to the end of my life for what I believe in.

The sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them.

I want to be remembered as a great actor - and a shining example of humanity.

If you have a very good concept of your character, you can snap into it.

Caged birds accept each other, but flight is what they long for.