I feel as if I've been so inured to failure, because I fail more than I succeed. As with any kind of fiction, I throw out so many pages; I get rejected so many times.

I feel like science fiction is so much more mainstream now than it has been. And I feel like that's because technology has caught up with us.

The greatest texts, I think, first dazzle, then with careful rereading, they instruct. I have learned from Virginia Woolf more than I even know how to articulate.

My childhood was as conventional as you could get. I think I probably created 'Arcadia' with a certain amount of wishful thinking. I would have loved to have more looseness and freedom and community.

I feel more Jewish than I do Iranian.

I suddenly find out that I'm 60, and I get shocked by the number, because I feel like I'm 20.