Everyone in the world should read this book... We should read it to learn about the world and what it means to be human.

A great novelist must open the reader’s heart, allow the reader to remember the vastness and glory – and shame and shabbiness – of what it is to be human.

I used to worry about exclamation marks, but what the hell. Sometimes I feel some enthusiasm. So I put in an exclamation point. About five years ago, I began to question the whole concept of “improvement.” I think I’m done being “improved.” That’s part of my prose style, and I’m certainly not going to change it now. And I may lose weight or get my wardrobe finally in order, but the chances on all that are low. “I yam what I yam,” as Popeye says.

'A Long Way Gone' says something about human nature that we try, most of the time, to ignore.

I'd never heard of Robert Hellenga; I didn't think a book with the name 'Snakewoman of Little Egypt' would hold any appeal for me at all.

I don't think I'm interested in writing women's novels anymore.

I hope someday to see California literature become a part of mainstream American literature, and I hope to be part of that process.

If you are in any way squeamish or genteel, skip 'Gillespie and I.' If you'd like to know a little more about the seamy side of the human condition, by all means, pick this one up.

It was in 'Esquire' in the 1970s that I first learned Nora Ephron's recipe for borscht - certainly an editorial first for that manly magazine.

There's a saying that when you go on traveling tours, you get to know whom the designated jerk is going to be within three days, and if you don't know it by then, you're the jerk.