I realised I'd spent a lot of time in my poetry trying to find a way of talking about that whereof we cannot speak.

The definition of a page-turner really aught to be that this page is so good, you can't bear to leave it behind, but then the next page is there and it might be just as amazing as this one.

That's the wonderful thing with nerds: they're enthusiasts. Not having a life means you get to love things with a passion and nobody bothers you about it.

Our response to the world is essentially one of wonder, of confronting the mysterious with a sense, not of being small, or insignificant, but of being part of a rich and complex narrative.

All you have to do is choose the right day, the right weather, and you come upon a hidden place in the morning light where time stopped long before you were born

The trick and the beauty of language is that it seems to order the whole universe, misleading us into believing that we live in sight of a rational space, a possible harmony.

As I child, I came to this idea with a horrified fascination. Once upon a time, I wasn’t here. Before that, my parents weren’t here. And before that…

If the components of the body were organs and veins and cells, then the components of thought and language were words and grammar.

Poetry stands or falls by its music.

My poems tend to be more celebratory and lyrical, and the novels so far pretty dark. Poetry doesn't seem to me to be an appropriate tool for exploring that.

With fiction, I tend to get to my desk and start writing. Poetry I write in my head, often while walking, so that my poems have an organic quality, hopefully.

I knew that just because people on the outside were free and clean, it didn’t mean they were the good ones.

The artist is not responsible to any one. His social role is asocial... his only responsibility consists in an attitude to the work he does.

I fare the best when I'm in dangerous situations.

Life isn't worth living unless you're willing to take some big chances and go for broke.

Ideas do not need weapons.

The samskaras that were developed in previous incarnations are usually hidden by the temporary amnesia of infancy and by the transient personality.

Conscience serves us especially to judge of the actions of others.

I'm seen as a chronicler of the class system, which I don't think is unfair.

The hour has arrived to abandon theories and go directly to what is practical.

We Americans... like change. It is at once our weakness and our strength.