Maybe that, really, is as good a definition as any of an artist in the world: a ruthless person.

Above all, in my anger, I was sad. Isn't that always the way, that at the heart of the fire is a frozen kernel of sorrow that the fire is trying -- valiantly, fruitlessly -- to eradicate.

I've discovered over the years that the simplest explanation is almost always the right one; and that hunger of one kind or another - desire, by another name - is the source of almost every sorrow.

That's so her. You know, torn between Big Ideas and a party. She's always been that way.

To my mind, Guernica is the most important online intellectual and literary journal in America today.

Geniuses have the shortest biographies.

It doesn't ever occur to you, as you fashion your mask so carefully, that it will grow into your skin and graft itself, come to seem irremovable.

We read to find life, in all its possibilities.

I was funny -- ha-ha, not peculiar. It was a modest currency, like pennies: pedestrian, somewhat laborious, but a currency nonetheless. I was funny, in public, most often at my own expense.

I wanted to write a voice that for me, as a reader, had been missing from the chorus: the voice of an angry woman.

Yes, writing is essential to me. It's my way of living in the world.

Just because a feeling is natural does not mean it should be indulged.

The whole world loves American movies, blue jeans, jazz and rock and roll. It is probably a better way to get to know our country than by what politicians or airline commercials represent.

The heartbrokenness of the sinner is better than the forcefulness of the obedient

When I look at the way I was able to play in my 17th year, I feel like I earned the right to play in the NFL for another one.

You are the director of your own life story. Don't cast idiots or people will walk out during your 2nd act.

Don't believe those lies about intellectual people. They're only written to soothe the majority.

Modern physics has... revealed that every sub-atomic particle not only performs an energy dance, but also is an energy dance; a pulsating process of creation and destruction.

I love watching, I love getting all the science about food. That's one of my favorite things.

If the government mandates anything with a price tag on it, then it ought to fund the project.

I mostly write short stories. They are best written in a continuous creative process. You have a feel of immediacy.