I stared at the Ohio River every day as a child, a thing that for me is almost more symbol than river. The formation of personality is inextricable f….

I have both experienced and witnessed a great deal of suffering in my life, and that has informed my art. I'm here today, because I'm a fighter. I di….

Every aspect of the novel is - or should be - an arrow pointed towards its ultimate meaning, or a multiplicity of possible meanings. But I also value….

Great literature rattles the mind and makes the body sing. It's an unmistakable, electric feeling, and too rare. That is what I want..

Anyone who lives with poor health or chronic pain, or who has endured poverty - real poverty - knows what it is to live with lack and a resulting fea….

I often think there are three primary responses to suffering - rage, intoxication, or growth. We either want revenge for our pain, or we numb ourselv….

Love is not a feeling, but an action..

The idea that writing about characters of another race requires a passage through a critical gauntlet, which involves apology and self-examination of….

I think the primary gift of the animal is offered to writer and non-writer alike; they teach us about love, or attunement, which is love in action. A….

Ultimately, I don't know if love is an organizing principle we choose or if it's innate. I'm not sure the distinction matters to me much anymore; I j….

When you leave good people afraid to speak on behalf of justice, however awkwardly or insensitively, those unafraid to speak will rise to power..

I think of moral beauty as what is the good and the just - terms perhaps best defined by their opposite: evil. Evil is the willingness to do damage t….

I don't believe love is real love if it remains cloistered within the confines of an intimate relationship; it should transcend the private sphere. A….

Humans struggle to remain attuned to one another - they want to turn away because of fear, or ambition, or boredom, or some lure of the ego. It's dif….

I was taught as a young person that the far political right and the far political left aren't located on a spectrum but on a circle, where they inevi….

Every single aspect of a text requires very careful choices and rigorous evaluation. Style is employed - or deployed - for a reason. It's purposeful.….

Ultimately, I want a peak experience in reading, and that is sometimes difficult to find in contemporary fiction. I'm not interested in books that ar….