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

Genre is a bookstore problem, not a literary problem.

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.

Life was not meant to be live alone.

The greatest prison where most people live is the fear of what other people think and say

What's up is faith what's down is heresy.

Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion of death.

Plenty, as well as Want, can separate friends.

When I'm frustrated that I'm not doing well in a tournament I cut my own hair, just lop it all off. I've probably made a right mess of it, but luckily I wear a cap when I play.

I dont like being told someones interpretation of something that I do.

What is more cruel than a tyrant's ear?

Love is the emblem of eternity; it confounds all notion of time.

I'm unhappy. I don't want to fall in love with you. It'll hurt far too much when it's over