But then, that's the beauty of writing stories-each one is an exploratory journey in search of a reason and a shape. And when you find that reason an….

Sometimes, when she's out here alone, she can feel the pulse of something bigger, as if all things animate were beating in unison, a glory and a conn….

I'm a product of state schools. I had a working-class family. We had no books. I was the first to go to college. But I didn't really think about it, ….

We live in a cluttered culture, a culture of information in which even our computers can't tell us what's worth knowing and what is merely cultural s….

There are always surprises. Life may be inveterately grim and the surprises disproportionately unpleasant, but it would be hardly worth living if the….

The professorial dictum has always been to write what you know, but I say write what you don't know and find something out. And it works..

I always listen to music while I'm working and I always read aloud to my wife. I love to read aloud to an audience because there's a cadence and a be….

Everything we do is escapism, because we'll all be dead and everything we do is completely meaningless. Why brush your teeth? Why not be in the park ….

Work ethic and this determination is all part of escaping the depressive side. Of course I'm manic depressive, maybe not to the degree that Exley was….

The reason we love nature is because it's fascinating and we love all the creatures, but if you watch any nature film, there's always a lesson: "the ….

If I'm doing my job correctly, I'm presenting a scenario for you as the reader to engage with on your own. I mean that's what the best art is suppose….

Pleasure, I remind myself, is inseparable from its lawfully wedded mate, pain..

I'm sad that there no more mysterious places in the world..

I have an idea and a first line -- and that suggests the rest of it. I have little concept of what I’m going to say, or where it’s going. I have some….

Any story has a beginning, middle, and end, of course, but the question is, where do you start it exactly? It's about a guy who is murdered in a fist….

We are animals and we are made in this way and this is how we behave. I'm just kind of fascinated by how we can deny that we are animals and what our….

First you have nothing, and then, astonishingly, after ripping out your brain and your heart and betraying your friends and ex-lovers and dreaming li….

I've always been a huge fan of theatre and performance. The idea of just the human voice and just this night. Live music is the same. They're doing i….

I'm always trying to do something different and trying to keep myself amused..

The hardest part is always the middle of anything because at that point, on some unconscious level, you have to figure out what it's about and why yo….

What I'm doing is exploring things. This is why I'm a fiction writer rather than an essayist or a politician or whatever. I just gather material and ….