Revelation is where all crazy people end up. It's the last stop on the nutso express.

You can't state difference and also state equality. We have to state sameness to understand equality.

As far as I'm concerned, if you want to find out about the last day of WWII or the roots of the Indian Mutiny, get thee to a books catalogue.

The past is always tense, the future perfect.

Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.

Every moment happens twice: inside and outside, and they are two different histories.

Don’t romanticise your ‘vocation’. You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no ‘writer’s lifestyle’. All that matters is what you leave on the page.

Time is how you spend your love.

I am the sole author of the dictionary that defines me.

Don't confuse honours with achievement.

Pulchritude--beauty where you would least suspect it, hidden in a word that looked like it should signify a belch or a skin infection.

Our life mandate on earth is carrying out our purpose

In a corner of my soul there hides a tiny frightened child, who is frightened by a corner where there lingers something wild.

When I was younger I could remember anything whether it had happened or not.

Literature overtakes history, for literature gives you more than one life. It expands experience and opens new opportunities to readers.

I find myself listening to Talk Talk on repeat while I'm doing gardening in upstate New York. Their music is so languid, and I just love his voice.

I sing around the house, in the shower

PITY, n. A failing sense of exemption, inspired by contrast.

I'm not a trained chef, so I end up making stuff up. It either turns out brilliant or an absolute disaster. I just go for it.

[I]f you want instant, reflexive support for the US government's police and military powers, MSNBC is the place to turn these days.

I should be writing a poem every morning but I'm not.