My mother always says that fear and pain are immediate, and that, when they're gone we're left with the concept, but not the true memory.

I grew up in Cyprus and Egypt, these fantastic places I remember fondly.

I do no writing while I'm in Belgrade visiting my grandma.

For me it was a lot harder to come to terms with the death of my grandfather than it was to come to terms with what's happened to the former Yugoslavia.

The best fiction stays with you and changes you.

My grandfather and I were very close.

A family has its own rituals and its own superstitions.

Come on, is your heart a sponge or a fist?

We're all entitled to our superstitions.

I've always written about animals. I'm still trying to process why that is.

I think the mythology of death really ran away with me when I was very young.

Humor is complete intelligence.

Quite often it's not about what is said, but what isn't. And even when it's spoken, read between the lines. Listening with the heart is just as important as hearing with the mind.

The most conventional romantic trope of all is that you put lovers under extreme pressure, where they have to make decisions that illuminate aspects of that bond.

I think Andy Kaufman is to comedy what the Velvet Underground was to music - it's like, 80 thousand records sold, but everybody who bought one started a band.

The secret to my success is practice!

The workplace should have a place where the kids can visit. They should have places at the mother's or the father's work where professionals can have their kids visit them whenever they feel like it.

The bigger the contract, the bigger the responsibility.

the bad is more easily perceived than the good. A fresh lobster does not give such pleasure to the consumer as a stale one will give him pain.

The Armenian massacre was the greatest crime of the war.

The only way to make a man worthy of love is by loving him.