Novel Writing Is Solitary Work.

Outside Of America, There Are Many People, Myself Included, Who Champion Values That, In Some Senses, Could Be Thought Of As Traditionally American - The Idea That Everybody's Equal, That The Rights Of Women And Men Should Be The Same, That There Should Be No Discrimination On Religious Or Sexual Orientation, That Democracy And Rule Of Law And Due Process Are The Ways In Which Society Should Govern Themselves And Minorities Should Be Cared For.

I Don't Think The Function Of Writing, At Least For Me As A Fiction Writer, Is To Say To People, "here's The Answer." It's Not An Op-ed.

I Take Six Or Seven Years To Write Really Small Books. There Is A Kind Of Aesthetic Of Leanness, Of Brevity.

When The Uncertain Future Becomes The Past, The Past In Turn Becomes Uncertain.

I Think We Should Be Prepared, Given Environmental And Political Change For Large-scale Migration. If Sea Levels Rise And 200 Million People In Bangladesh And 300 Million People In Indonesia Need To Move, And The Entire Chinese Seaboard, New York City - That's Going To Be Huge.