I slept for four years. I didn't study much of anything. I majored in something called communication arts.

I saw a photograph of a wedding conducted by Reverend Moon of the Unification Church. I wanted to understand this event, and the only way to understand it was to write about it.

There's always a period of curious fear between the first sweet-smelling breeze and the time when the rain comes cracking down.

It's no accident that my first novel was called Americana. This was a private declaration of independence, a statement of my intention to use the whole picture, the whole culture.

People who are in power make their arrangements in secret, largely as a way of maintaining and furthering that power.

People who are powerless make an open theater of violence.