I flattered myself that I was rather empathetic, that I had rather good imaginative empathy. I've realized now that that was a complete self-delusion….

One of the rather unedifying truths about grief is it does block out more or less everything. It has a solipsistic quality to it..

My hunch, for what it's worth, is that most of us probably find it much, much harder than we realize to really imagine what catastrophe is like. I ha….

Trying to defend religion by invoking science is like claiming that three plus four equals ice cream..

For most of my life I have known how to control my feelings. If you can control your feelings, you can pretty much control your whole world. It's ama….

I've discovered that, in order for life to go on, you have to believe in necessary fantasies such as what you think is going to happen next week will….

I suppose if I didn't write for a living and it couldn't be published, I would have wanted to write anyway. I think there's something about the act o….

I can't stand family secrets. I think they're such a toxic thing and they always leak out..