I felt Joyce was an influence on my fiction, but in a very general way, as a kind of inspiration and a model for the beauty of language.

I think more than writers, the major influences on me have been European movies, jazz, and Abstract Expressionism.

I watch movies occasionally, and I watch documentaries. Virtually nothing else.

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

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.

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.