Sometimes the very best way to deal with unpleasant things is to depict them in ways that allow people to laugh at them and destroy the power of unsayable things, rather than refusing to acknowledge them.
You have no idea what it is like to constantly disappoint people. You see it the moment you meet them. You see in their eyes that they expected something so entirely different, and here they are meeting you.
When you reach the end of your life – trust me, you won’t look back and savor the moments you spent alone.
College is like a fountain of knowledge – and the students are there to drink.
These stories are ghosts, bringing people back from the dead. Just for a moment. For a visit. Every story is a ghost.
There are people out there who will not read books, but somehow they’ll read my books.
Sometimes the past seems too big for the present to hold.
Don’t rush or force the ending. All you have to know is the next scene, or the next few scenes.
Nobody’s told me anything to date that I’ve been completely reviled by.
It takes a lot to get people talking in airplanes. But once they start talking, you just can’t shut them up.
I will never write a sequel to anything that I will ever write.
I need to rebel against myself. It’s the opposite of following your bliss. I need to do what I most fear.
No, it’s not fair, but what makes Earth feel like Hell is our expectation that it should feel like Heaven. Earth is earth. Dead is dead. You’ll find out for yourself soon enough. It won’t help the situation for you to get all upset.
I try to tell a story the way someone would tell you a story in a bar, with the same kind of timing and pacing.
Sex pretty much cures everything.
The best way to waste your life, is by taking notes. The easiest way to avoid living is to just watch. Look for the details. Report. Don’t participate.
The voice says, maybe you don’t go to hell for the things you do. Maybe you go to hell for the things you don’t do. The things you don’t finish.
What you have to consider is the possibility that God doesn’t like you. Could be, God hates us. This is not the worst thing that could happen.
A writer’s job is to cultivate what can go wrong.
We’re so structured and micromanaged, this isn’t a world anymore, it’s a damn cruise ship.