We live in a moment and a culture when reading is really endangered. There's simply no way to write well, though, if you're not reading well.

I was a stepchild in two different families. The hardest thing about being a stepchild is you know that in some way everything would be easier if you didnt exist.

If I had a view like this to look down on every day, I would have the energy and inspiration to conquer the world. The trouble is, when you most need such a view, no one gives it to you.

Read at the level at which you want to write. Reading is the nourishment that feeds the kind of writing you want to do.

Goon Squad' took about three years to write and that's the short end. My second novel, 'Look at Me,' took six years.

I don’t want to fade away, I want to flame away - I want my death to be an attraction, a spectacle, a mystery. A work of art.

Because you can't write habitually and well all the time, you have to be willing to write badly. That's how you get the regularity that enables you to be present for the good stuff.

Reading is the nourishment that lets you do interesting work.

I'm always happy," Sasha said. "Sometimes I just forget.

The answers were maddeningly absent—it was like trying to remember a song that you knew made you feel a certain way, without a title, artist, or even a few bars to bring it back.

Vinegar: that's what fear smells like.

To realize the truth, you have to cross the boundaries of all religions and prophets.

In the depths of hell roasting on a spit if it meant getting to be close to you.

For the writer, the process of writing a novel is like getting an advanced copy of a book you'd really like to read.

Faith is a state of openness or trust.

My heart/ is whatever temperature a heart is/ in a man who doesn't believe in heaven.

No man should ever lose sleep over public affairs.

If you don't think you can do it, who will? You control the most important tool in success, your mind.

We like rain if the sun comes after it; we like night if the day comes after it; we like everything conditionally! We are conditional people!

Welcome to Israel, where chanting “Death to Arabs” is democracy, running over children is equality, and firing on funerals is peace.

When I’m behind a camera I forget I exist.