I'm more interested than Philip Roth in understanding women, even if I do it imperfectly. But that book, Portnoy's Complaint, is literary punk in this way that is rare.

For whatever reason, people know that car crashes can happen but they don't live with that fear every day when they're driving, or they're able to overcome it.

I also think that there's something about the graphic, political nature of such attacks, mixed with the fact that it all seems completely random to the victims.

The West, in the form of American capitalism, is seen as having won, but people are beginning to offer alternatives again, sometimes in retrograde ways like radical Islam.

The feeling I got from my research is that the victims of bombings end up becoming as alienated from the government as the terrorists who cause the attacks.

Of course I had a piece of luck I couldn't have imagine for myself in a million years: I got an agent. That sped up the process. I'd say it's a good idea, getting an agent.

How do you prevent attacks from becoming the very fabric of lived life in a city? Of course it's very easy to say you should be fearless and go about your daily life.

It's very good for us to say, as liberals, that we should be moved by everything, but the fact is that there's just so much competing for our attention.

The problem of empathy is pretty universal, and pretty much breaks down across America. People can't feel beyond their drawn borders. And skin color and culture have a lot to do with that.

People are rushed and inspired by the success of Indian writers, and are falling over themselves to write novels. Every Indian is writing a novel right now. No one wants to revise.

Most of the people in the audience were white and old. They had the gaunt look of people who have seen all the important movies and can now only look forward to reruns.

You can't go back and I think that's the point of all to grow and grow until you don't want to anymore.

Little by little the agents have taken over the world. They don't do anything, they don't make anything, they just stand and take their cut.

As a brother and sister, our tastes were pretty different growing up. He liked a lot of early hip hop. My dad didn't understand it and would try to talk him out of it.

The secret of achieving prosperity lies in so vividly keeping yourself centered in the inner focus of affluence that you literally exude the consciousness of it.

The man who thinks hateful thoughts brings hatred upon himself. The man who thinks loving thoughts is loved.

To know whom to strike is competence; to know how to strike is skill; to know where and when to strike is art; to know why to strike is victory.

Let God talk to you and minister to you, where you get honest with Him - here's what I do well and don't do well; here are my shortcomings, my strengths, and my gifts.

Left eyebrow raised, right eyebrow raised.

The tennis world is constantly changing. What's true today may be wrong tomorrow. If you don't make progress, others will and you will be overtaken.

This I believe: I believe there is no God.