Genre is a bookstore problem, not a literary problem.

I have worked really hard to defy categorization, to break down a taxonomy whenever it comes my way.

Impotence, fetishism, bisexuality, and bondage are all facts of life, and our fiction should reflect that.

The past was so past it hurt.

I think literature is best when it's voicing what we would prefer not to talk about.

I am in Boston right now, in fact, to do work at the New England Historical Genealogical Library, where I'm trying to finish up tracing my lineage back to the seventeenth century.

I suppose I should say that I treasure blasphemy, as a faith of the highest order.

I judged about a zillion awards this year so Ive been reading a lot of books that just came out.

It's also true, however, that having conquered the regional writer ghetto, I am now intent on conquering the nationalist writer ghetto and moving out into the world more.

I'm trying to read more dead people because I keep having to read stuff for juries and so forth.

Major theme of the book ["Hotels of North America"], from my point of view: what is persona, what is self, in the digital sphere, and/or what is the effect of it on self in a prolonged interaction.

Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.

There's an inexplicable joy that exists on a brown child's face and in the way they navigate their world long before they discover they're hated.

You can Save Time with Writing but you can Save a Life by Reading.

The light within you is divine.

Honesty is the quality I value most in a friend. Not bluntness, but honesty with compassion.

Education is not an affair of 'telling' and being told, but an active and constructive process.

When one's character begins to fall under suspicion and disfavor, how swift, then, is the work of disintegration and destruction.

I came like Water, and like Wind I go.

When I played, I received racial abuse but I was just one of a few black players and we weren't backed up by the authorities.

I've been missing Japanese literature so much of late.