The future belongs to crowds.

The language of my books has shaped me as a man.

The modern meaning of life's end-when does it end? How does it end? How should it end? What is the value of life? How do we measure it?

Men with secrets tend to be drawn to each other, not because they want to share what they know but because they need the company of the like-minded, the fellow afflicted.

In a repressive society, a writer can be deeply influential, but in a society that's filled with glut and repetition and endless consumption, the act of terror may be the only meaningful act.

It's no accident that my first novel was called Americana. This was a private declaration of independence, a statement of my intention to use the whole picture, the whole culture.

American writers ought to stand and live in the margins, and be more dangerous.

America was and is the immigrant's dream.

Californians invented the concept of life-style. This alone warrants their doom.

Every sentence has a truth waiting at the end of it and the writer learns how to know it when he finally gets there.

For me, writing is a concentrated form of thinking.

Hardship makes the world obscure.

I embarked on my life - I didn't do anything. I don't have an explanation.

A Catholic is raised with the idea that he will die any minute now and if he doesn't live his life in a certain way, this death is an introduction to an eternity of pain.