In love there are two things - bodies and words.

In love there are two things - bodies and words.

I should say, one of the things about being a widow or a widower, you really, really need a sense of humor, because everything's going to fall apart.

I was brought up to be sympathetic toward others.

As a teacher at Princeton, I'm surrounded by people who work hard so I just make good use of my time. And I don't really think of it as work - writing a novel, in one sense, is a problem-solving exercise.

I consider tragedy the highest form of art.

I'm drawn to failure. I feel like I'm contending with it constantly in my own life.

If food is poetry, is not poetry also food?

To be Jewish is to be specifically identified with a history. And if you're not aware of that when you're a child, the whole tradition is lost.

Boxing is a celebration of the lost religion of masculinity all the more trenchant for its being lost.

Obviously the imagination is fueled by emotions beyond the control of the conscious mind.

Primarily, 'Black Girl/White Girl' is the story of two very different, yet somehow 'fated' girls; for Genna, her 'friendship' with Minette is the most haunting of her life, though it is one-sided and ends in tragedy.

People have libraries at home, they have bookshelves, they have CDs. And they sort of try, people try to bring great artists into their lives, into their physical houses and sort of live with portions of them. But they're not really deeply engaging with them.

I think all art comes out of conflict. When I write I am always looking for the dramatic kernel of an event, the junctures of people's lives when they go in one direction, not another.

The worst cynicism: a belief in luck.

When you are writing literary writing, you are communicating something subtextual with emotions and poetry. The prose has to have a voice; it's not just typing. It takes a while to get that voice.