Lot of stories in deceit, how characters deceive other people, but most of all, I think, how they deceive themselves. We're not as tricky as we think we are.

Actually, you’re not famous at all. Maybe you’ll get some traction after you’re dead?

I revise and revise and revise. I'm not even sure "revise" is the right word. I work a story almost to death before it's done.

I think anything we do - eating, walking down the street, online shopping - gives you another perspective on writing stories.

I sometimes wonder if our memories are a myth. We think we remember, but we are remembering the story and not the actual event?

I agree with the Lev Tolstoy quote completely, but I also feel like there's more to it. What is a happy family and an unhappy family? We're probably both of those things at the same time.

A stellar, fully-realized collection of stories... grounded, wonderfully, in the river valleys of western Maine. You come away not only understanding a place but the soul of its people.

I've spent a lot of time in prisons, first doing legal work and later, teaching.

If a novel or a story works, you don't stop thinking about it; it doesn't truly end.

I have a friend who teaches yoga (or is it pilates?), and she said that I don't seem to live in the moment. And I said, "Exactly!" I'd go nuts if I lived in the moment.

I think some writers should wait for something to say.

Orlando said it was important for scientists to have minds kept open by literature, and souls touched by the creativity of art.

Although people are so kind to alcohol, still alcohol makes them blind.

There is nothing stronger in the world than gentleness.

Then I'm sorry to say, I've eat your pie.

At the root of all power and motion, at the burning center of existence itself, there is music and rhythm.

How rarely can happiness be really innocent and not triumphant, not an insult to the deprived.

I worry about my nan. If she's alone and falls, does she make a noise? I'm joking, she's dead.

History is not hatred.

A good marriage is each for the other and two against the world.

I've always said that racing in New York is performing on the big stage.