I would not send a first story anywhere. I would give myself time to write a number of stories.

That's what books are for... to travel without moving an inch.

Fiction is the only way I know a human being can inhabit the mind of another human being.

Pack a pillow and blanket and see as much of the world as you can.You will not regret it.

I am drawn to any story that makes me want to read from one sentence to the next. I have no other criterion.

A bicultural upbringing is a rich but imperfect thing

Pet names are a persistant remnant of childhood, a reminder that life is not always so serious, so formal, so complicated. They are a reminder, too, that one is not all things to all people.

Somehow, bad news, however ridden with static, however filled with echoes, always manages to be conveyed.

The first sentence of a book is a handshake, perhaps an embrace.

That the last two letters in her name were the first two in his, a silly thing he never mentioned to her but caused him to believe that they were bound together.

It didn't matter that I wore clothes from Sears; I was still different. I looked different. My name was different. I wanted to pull away from the things that marked my parents as being different.

Would you approach a crazy person with a loaded gun? Well, that is exactly what you are doing with some police officers when you approach them.

More than any audience in the world, Americans will cross their arms, stare at you and say, 'OK, whaddya got?' - no matter how many times you've proven it to them.

What makes defeat so painful is just the awareness that the other has won. It hurts to lose because it feels so good to win.

I walk through doors. If I'm not wanted in a place, there's something wrong with the place, not with me.

My default is self-destruction, and anything on top of that is a bloody lot of work.

I strongly agree that a National Intelligence Director should be established to oversee and coordinate the 15 federal intelligence agencies.

Come up and see me sometime.

I love you. I don't know when it started, years ago or weeks. But I know my heart's lost to you, and I wouldn't have it another way. You're what I want, all there is of you.

the two major parties too often present us with a choice of the evil of two lessers.

We're blessed with, as we were on 'Harry Potter,' lead actors who are amazingly grounded people.