"If I don't measure up as an American writer, at least leave me to my delusion." — Philip Roth

I'm an Obama supporter. And if you're an Obama supporter, that means you had a hard time during the Bush years.

That's what you're looking for as a writer when you're working. You're looking for your own freedom. To lose your inhibition to delve deep into your memory and experiences and life and then to find the prose that will persuade the reader.

The novelist's obsession, moment by moment, is with language: finding the right next word.

I don't know any writer for whom it comes easily. Maybe John Updike - a story would just seem to come to him whole, you know, out of a personal experience. But the rest of us, I think, are not so lucky, and I had to work hard, yeah.