It's hard to read real fiction. It takes time. It takes a sustained attention.

Oh, a bookshop. Why not pop in and buy a little Kant? And perhaps just a quarter-pound of Kafka. Don't bother to wrap it, thanks. I'll eat it here.

Good art is a form of prayer. It's a way to say what is not sayable.

Baseball is a game where you are always waiting, and then when something happens it's like turning a kaleidoscope when you were a kid.

I love thrillers. I would even read certain science fiction, although I haven't been a devotee for many years.

There is a lack of context in contemporary education. And contemporary consideration - because we live in those interiorities so much. Especially young kids who live by surfing the Web.

I love baseball. What I love about baseball is that you are always waiting.

The best defense is a good story.

Never use 'submit' as a verb for sending work to magazine or book publishers; say 'offer,' and never, ever submit. Keep your knees unbent. Be brave.

What to know about pain is how little we do to deserve it, how simple it is to give, how hard to lose.

I have found myself writing poetry shortly after I retired. Which I hadn't done in forty years.

There's something in everyone only they know.

For me, a paint brush is the only tool I use extensively in my works, to push paint on canvas and conduct melodies. And that's exactly what Garden Avenue is, and all of my projects after that.

What you do on the court, off the court, in the classroom, it's all the same. Your habits, the way you treat class, your relationships - it's all the same. Do it right or don't do it.

I'm a big horror fan. I'm a genre fan. I like to make these movies. They're my favorite kinds of movies to make.

Victims always feel alone and helpless.

The rest of what I learned about baseball came from Peter Gammons, the Boston Globe's best baseball writer when I was in high school.

Taking in a baseball game on TV is also a big treat.

Revision is its own reward.

The orthodox faith painted God as a revengeful being, and yet people talk about loving such a being.