Maybe when I'm sixty-five I'll talk about my literary life.

I have worked really hard to defy categorization, to break down a taxonomy whenever it comes my way.

Impotence, fetishism, bisexuality, and bondage are all facts of life, and our fiction should reflect that.

The past was so past it hurt.

I think literature is best when it's voicing what we would prefer not to talk about.

I am in Boston right now, in fact, to do work at the New England Historical Genealogical Library, where I'm trying to finish up tracing my lineage back to the seventeenth century.

I suppose I should say that I treasure blasphemy, as a faith of the highest order.

Genre is a bookstore problem, not a literary problem.

I judged about a zillion awards this year so Ive been reading a lot of books that just came out.

It's also true, however, that having conquered the regional writer ghetto, I am now intent on conquering the nationalist writer ghetto and moving out into the world more.

I'm trying to read more dead people because I keep having to read stuff for juries and so forth.

give a woman the chance to reject something else besides me

Men were just like sheep, and nothing was easier than for women to set up as shepherds and pen them up in a field.

You will find your horizons expanding and your thought processes becoming more creative. That is true mind power!

Whenever we changed schools, we had to make a new set of friends. At the time, of course, I hated it. But looking back now, I'm really glad I did, because it forces independence on you.

The asanas are useful maps to explore yourself, but they are not the territory.

You can't have an industrial revolution, you can't have democracies, you can't have populations who can govern themselves until you have literacy. The printing press simply unlocked literacy.

The reason I've been able to maintain my position of chairman of CBS in addition to all the Viacom stuff is my team.

Heart is what separates the good from the great.

Sorry men, but I think boys are a little more oblivious in high school. Girls are just more sensitive. We're so concerned about how we look and how we're doing.

Intent is guilt. Failure to successfully carry out the intent does not absolve the guilt.