The unflattering reviews are painful for short periods of time; the badly written ones are deeply, deeply insulting. That reviewer took no time to really read the book.
I would solve a lot of literary problems just thinking about a character in the subway, where you can't do anything anyway.
Make a difference about something other than yourselves.
It's been mentioned or suggested that Paradise will not be well studied, because it's about this unimportant intellectual topic, which is religion.
I don't think anybody cares about unwed mothers unless they're black or poor. The question is not morality, the question is money. That's what we're upset about.
When there is pain, there are no words. All pain is the same.
I wrote my first novel because I wanted to read it.
At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough.
As you enter positions of trust and power, dream a little before you think.
No one ever talks about the moment you found that you were white. Or the moment you found out you were black. That's a profound revelation. The minute you find that out, something happens. You have to renegotiate everything.
Everywhere, everywhere, children are the scorned people of the earth.
Love is or it ain't. Thin love ain't love at all.
