The problems we have with our current technology often reveal our own human foibles, and it's these new emotions of cyberspace which reveal our struggles.

I think the future is intrinsically linked with our universal human problems. In fact, it's these very problems, and how we deal with them, which will determine our future.

I realize that I've had a very idyllic vision of what spirituality looks like. Honestly, most of Western culture has an idyllic and simplified idea of what enlightenment entails.

I'll take a [Pavel] Chekhov comparison any day! He's of course one of the great masters at the short story form, and has helped define traditional conflict as we understand it.

I set many of my stories in a gritty "realist" world, but one that is plagued by an overuse of technology, which is akin to the world we find ourselves living in now.

I really admire the experimentalists who challenge traditional narrative - writers like Ishmael Reed, Michael Martone, Donald Barthelme, Tatyana Tolstaya, George Saunders, and many others.

"Openness" [story] ultimately asks this same question - can a relationship survive complete honesty? As a romantic, I want to say "Yes, of course!" But, over time, I've come to agree with Dan Savage.

[George W.] Bush's presidency was one of the great nightmares of my life to date.

If you start identifying your inner self with the spirit of pure potentiality then you are aligning with the power that helps in the manifestation of all energy in the form of matter.

The true conflict in innovation is self-imposed by trying to make our visions reality.

The good writer and the good actor are always searching for what is essential. It is a never-ending task because what is essential is always elusive and, therefore, fascinating.

You get to have some mischief before you're basically a blackened banana, impotent, and nothing to be afraid of.

The years keep coming and going, Men will arise & depart; Only one thing is immortal: The love that is in my heart.

I consider looseness with words no less of a defect than looseness of the bowels.

I happen to be colorblind. Racism is not my motto. One day, I strongly expect every color to love as one family.

My body is a metronome, keeping time for the universe.

I'm shocked and surprised by people that are shocked and surprised that certain things in life are made up or not as true as you might believe them to be.

If you want to gnaw greenery in the morning for health reasons, do it in your own home with the curtains drawn.