"That's what you're looking for as a writer when you're working. You're looking for your own freedom...." — 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.

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

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.