The characters write the plot. Their natures do.

Literature is humanity talking to itself.

It’s a rare reader who doesn’t go to the novel looking for a kind of encouragement to live.

I feel like someone after a deluge being asked to describe the way it was before the flood while I'm still plucking seaweed out of my hair.

I wanted to incorporate everything, understand everything, because time is cruel and nothing stays the same.

I must love big novels, because that's what I've written. It takes a while before you begin to breathe the air the characters breathe.

it wasn’t until the train went past that she saw the small body lying in the long grass by the side of the wood.

All my life I’ve lived a beautiful lie. The governor’s son with the bright future set for him. The middle child. The one who no one knew how bad he was suffering until it made the nightly news.

Winning isn't imperative, but getting tougher in the fourth quarter is.

Legacy is a stupid thing! I don't want a legacy.

Talking to all those great writers and artists for the magazine was a form of graduate school for me.

The real future of the Hispanic targeted media and advertising is in English.

I admire anybody who has the guts to write anything at all.

Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery.

Dogs are too much to handle. I don't need anything in my house that's needier than me.

I believe the universe presents more options to a more loving mind.