The ideal art, the noblest of art: working with the complexities of life, refusing to simplify, to "overcome" doubt.

My reputation for writing quickly and effortlessly notwithstanding, I am strongly in favor of intelligent, even fastidious revision, which is, or certainly should be, an art in itself.

It isn't the subjects we write about but the seriousness and subtlety of our expression that determines the worth of or effort.

For the writer, the serial killer is, abstractly, an analogue of the imagination's caprices and amorality; the sense that, no matter the dictates and even the wishes of the conscious social self, the life or will or purpose of the imagination is incomprehensible, unpredictable.

I consider tragedy the highest form of art.

If I'm writing, I'll say something metaphorical or approximate, whereas scientists are very precise.