Wisdom worth sharing, words worth remembering.
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.
Boxing has become America's tragic theater.
I could never take the idea of religion very seriously.
Boxing is a celebration of the lost religion of masculinity all the more trenchant for its being lost.
In love there are two things – bodies and words.
Obviously the imagination is fueled by emotions beyond the control of the conscious mind.
It seems disingenuous to ask a writer why she or he is writing about a violent subject when the world and history are filled with violence.
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.
If food is poetry is not poetry also food?
Yes I've listened to just a few audiobooks – but hope to listen to more. I've wanted to investigate how my own books sound in this format and find the experience of listening and not reading quite fascinating.
Anyone who teaches knows that you don't really experience a text until you've taught it in loving detail with an intelligent and responsive class.
If you are a writer you locate yourself behind a wall of silence and no matter what you are doing driving a car or walking or doing housework you can still be writing because you have that space.
