Love doesn't conquer everything. And whoever thinks it does is a fool.

When you feel homesick,’ he said, ‘just look up. Because the moon is the same wherever you go.

Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it.

The books I loved in childhood - the first loves - I’ve read so often that I’ve internalized them in some really essential way: they are more inside me now than out.

The Little Friend is a long book. It's also completely different from my first novel: different landscape, different characters, different use of language and diction, different approach to story.

Sometimes you can do all the right things and not succeed. And that's a hard lesson of reality.

Taking on challenging projects is the way that one grows and extends one's range as a writer, one's technical command, so I consider the time well-spent

It is is better to know one book intimately than a hundred superficially.

I believe, in a funny way, the job of the novelist is to be out there on the fringes and speaking for an experience that has not really been spoken for.

Does such a thing as "the fatal flaw," that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature?

Criticism at the wrong time, even if it's legitimate criticism, can be seriously damaging and make the writer lose faith in what he's doing. It's the timing that's all-important.

The greatest tool of self-love is self-awareness. Once you truly know yourself, love is the only option.

The true index of a man's character is the health of his wife.

You can't control the world, but when you control your thoughts, you bring order.

It's really cool to be around people that are younger than you who are really cool with being open about stuff.

We all have a Monster within; the difference is in degree, not in kind.

I have mostly software synthesizers and software drum machines. I'm very lazy. I don't really like to plug in a lot of equipment and external boxes and everything.

I much prefer making music to talking about it. There's something visceral about instruments and voices that transcends words.

She had more curves than a scenic railway

One kind kiss before we part, Drop a tear and bid adieu; Though we sever, my fond heart Till we meet shall pant for you.

If it comes to a swinging, swing all, say I.