"That adage about 'Write what you know' is basically the opposite of the way I function. I write about what I'm curious to find out."

"But I always need to identify with a character to write about him or her - and by 'identify,' I mean see the world through that person's eyes and have a strong sense of the inner logic of their acts and decisions, wacky or wrongheaded though they might be. In that sense, I think there's some of me in all of them."

"I felt more doubtful than usual with 'Goon Squad,' because I knew that the book's genre wasn't easily named - Novel? Stories? Novel-in-stories? - and I worried that its lack of a clear category would count against it. My hopes for it were pretty modest."

"I write totally spontaneously. I actually write fiction by hand - that always seems to startle people. I think the reason I do that is to bypass the thinking part of me and get to the more unconscious part, which is where all the good ideas seem to be."

"By nature all men are equal in liberty, but not in other endowments."

"The difference between being a victim and a survivor is often a low level of situational awareness. You can't be a super-spy, watchful and paranoid every day. But I am more watchful than the average American."

"Ah, the creative process is the same secret in science as it is in art. They are all the same absolutely."

"Acting is a nice childish profession - pretending you're someone else and, at the same time, selling yourself."