Fiction offered me tools that allowed me to approach a wider variety of issues than the events of my own life would.

And that was my homecoming. It was fine, I guess. Getting back feels like your first breath after nearly drowning. Even if it hurts, it's good.

War is too strange to be processed alone.

Veteran art creates a meeting place between veterans and civilians, or simply between veterans with different experiences.

It's not so much the question that offends me; it's that the people asking it don't seem to respect the moral seriousness of the question.

Writing fiction means putting a lot of what you believe about the world at risk, because you have to follow your characters.

If you're going to write about war, the ugly side is inevitable. Suffering and death are obviously part of war.

I've certainly thought a lot more about things like tyranny and patriotism and violence. I think I found some kind of clarity - definitely a thicker understanding.

It would be so nice if something made sense for a change.

We live too long for one marriage.

You must have a dragon hidden inside you. When you need, you let the dragon out.

I find the fact that billionaires are quoted as if the fact that they are billionaires gives them some kind of wisdom is outrageous.

I write articles, and I do profiles of members of organizations and associations.

Curving back within myself I create the world around me.

Sleep is for squares.

In the simplest array of digits [Ramanujan] detected wonderful properties: congruences, symmetries and relationships which had escaped the notice of even the outstandingly gifted theoreticians.

Really? Anyone intimidated by Barack Obama? He can't even keep Joe Biden in line.

The first thing, the first element of a story that people hear, they believe it. Whether it's right or wrong.