There are a million little things, but one of the best ways to get to know characters is to just put them in situations and see what they say.

We would go down to Riverside, California, which is very poor now, but that's where my grandfather grew up. He grew up during the Depression in Riverside.

I didn't know the city at all, but I was so happy to be in New York I cried. I was so excited.

I like movies about women behaving badly, because women behave badly just like men, and we're not always adorable and cute about it.

You keep learning how to let go and to live the life that you actually have, as opposed to the life you thought you were going to have.

I've never had a plan, I've always done things from instinct.

I like things that look like mistakes.

Let your characters talk to each other and do things. Spend time with them - they'll tell you who they are and what they're up to.

I’m not saying that everyone needs to be celibate, but you don’t need a romance to complete a story about a woman

I feel like most people aren't either/or, they're both/and. You're both magnanimous and petty. You're both kind and cruel. You're never just one thing.

I had dreams, but I didn't have the sense that they would necessarily work out. They seemed very far-fetched.

If you were my child, I would staple you to your bedroom wall.

Man, I'm not trying to be important; I just go out and play.

The Little Friend is a long book. It's also completely different from my first novel: different landscape, different characters, different use of language and diction, different approach to story.

Most people put the cart before the horse, which is an interesting way to go through life. They approach everything directly. In Zen we approach everything backwards or inside out.

Praise has different effects, according to the mind it meets with; it makes a wise man modest, but a fool more arrogant, turning his weak brain giddy.

Being in the same room with people and creating something together is a good thing.

We don't need no thought control.

You're familiar with the tragedies of antiquity, are you? The great homicidal classics?

I'm a winter girl. I like coming out when things are desolate and everybody's ready to slit their wrists.

We agree that man was not created to survive in space.