In order really to write one has to sink deep into the self and become lost there.

Fictional characters are made of words, not flesh; they do not have free will, they do not exercise volition. They are easily born, and as easily killed off.

All my life I have lied. I lied to escape, I lied to be loved, I lied for placement and power; I lied to lie. It was a way of living; lies are life's almost-anagram.

The past beats inside me like a second heart.

If I was asked to say what was the greatest invention of human beings, I would say the sentence.

Everything we do is tinged with the knowledge that this may be the last time that we will do this, and that makes what we're doing incredibly sweet.

We carry the dead with us only until we die too, and then it is we who are borne along for a little while, and then our bearers in their turn drop, and so on into the unimaginable generations.

To take possession of a city of which you are not a native you must first fall in love there.

For memory, we use our imagination. We take a few strands of real time and carry them with us, then like an oyster we create a pearl around them.

A man is not much if he can't depend on himself, and nothing if others can't depend on him.

Most crime fiction, no matter how 'hard-boiled' or bloodily forensic, is essentially sentimental, for most crime writers are disappointed romantics.

It's fiction, the improbable is very probable in my worlds

I didn't appear to need anyone: I could do it all myself. I could do everything. I was both halves: did that mean I was whole?

It is a mistake to speak of a bad choice in love, since as soon as there is a choice it can only be a bad one.

But I didn't mind. I loved that everything was cataloged and ready to go and that I was technically now living and sleeping in a library.

[I want to be remembered] as a small piece of the puzzle sent here to serve a bigger picture.

It's the job of intellectuals and writers to cast doubt on perfection.

The term itself--my life--is a desperate overstatement.

Be happy in your body. It's the only one you've got, so you might as well like it.

Does God say, "cut back on the sunsets?" No, our Maker is abundant.

Also, if you're in a TV show that does turn out to be very successful, you then can do whatever you want to do in theater for a very long time.