You have to figure out who the right person is to tell the story. And often, people who are very self-aware will only sound as if they are pontificating if they tell the story.

People forget years and remember moments.

When I was teaching at Harvard in the 1970s, I went to Project Incorporated in Cambridge and took photography classes. I didn't even know how to aim the camera in those days.

Because I don’t work with an outline, writing a story is like crossing a stream, now I’m on this rock, now I’m on this rock, now I’m on this rock.

Clichés so often befall vain people.

I think almost always that what gets me going with a story is the atmosphere, the visual imagery, and then I people it with characters, not the other way around.

I don't write about things that I have the answers to or things that are very close to home. It just wouldn't be any adventure. It wouldn't have any vitality.

There is some reason, obviously, that you are drawn to your material, but the way in which you explore it might come to be quite different from what you would expect.

Nobody can assume that, to a writer, everything is off-limits.

I like a lot of Margaret Atwood, I like much of Alice Munro. Again, if you were to ask me about male writers, there's often a novel I admire, but not all of their works.

It's often been said that I'm an extremely depressing, cynical writer. I've never known what to make of that.

I almost always urge people to write in the first person. Writing is an act of ego and you might as well admit it.

Don't be afraid! Hold my hand and let's jump off that cliff together.

Without an opportunity, their abilities would have been wasted, and without their abilities, the opportunity would have arisen in vain.

Anger does not solve anything

The question is: Particularly in the post-9/11 era, are societies becoming more liberal or more authoritarian?

[Marriage is] like signing a 356-page contract without knowing what's in it.

The impossible is not quite impossible if you put your mind to it.

Of all the entrepreneurial opportunities available today, one of the most important is direct selling, also called network marketing.

If you come to a fork in the road, take it.

I love playing three, four times a week. That's what I've always wanted to do. In college we played Friday, Saturday, then had the whole week to think about it.