In the army you feel violated - there's no private space. Writing was a life-saver, a way of recovering private territory.

Translators are like ninjas. If you notice them, they’re no good.

My father - I once asked him what was his greatest achievement. He said his greatest achievement was that he fought in five wars in the infantry, always on the front line, and never hurt anybody.

According to Gur's theory of boredom, everything that happens in the world today is because of boredom: love, war, inventions, fake fireplaces - ninety-five percent of all that is pure boredom.

It's kind of a reflex for me to ignore my own wishes and think about other people first.

If you want to learn how to be happy, you have to know what is sadness first.

Rabbits are played. Nowadays it's all about the turtles. Tell them it's a ninja, they'll freak.

The one who swallows cactuses with spines should not complain about hemorrhoids.

Writing a story is kind of like surfing, as opposed to the novel, where you use a GPS to get somewhere. With surfing, you kind of jump.

For three months, a person sits and looks at you, imagining a kiss.

Most of the Jewish writer friends I have are American, and I feel closer to them because they're always obsessed with one issue - identity: what does it mean to be an American Jew?

If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome.

The parenting bit is much harder than the acting bit. You just never know what to do.

Climate change involves behaviors that are individually negligible, whose impacts go far beyond the spatial and temporal constraints that define our sense of community.

Knowing the future is difficult, controlling the future is impossible. Knowing today is essential; controlling today is possible.

I would hate to meet myself at 15.

The problem is, if El Chapo builds a tunnel under the fence, we need to deal with that too.

There's a kind of virgin one only becomes with difficulty.

We love purely when we release other people to be who they are.

Decomposition, for most, starts when they leave the free, social, and uncorrupted college life for the solitary confinement of professions and nuclear families.

So, 'reaper' is really just a nice word for 'covert pervert?' Is that what you're saying?