I want to change something. I want to stop the germs from attacking my daughters.

I cannot think of a country in which I would be happy with the government and dominant ideology and available propaganda.

I write and read with the assumption that literature contains knowledge of human experience that is not available otherwise.

Rilke said that art can come only out of inner necessity. I write because I must. Or because I cannot not write.

I'm not nervous if I think about something for nine years and then I don't write it. Even if it fades it doesn't concern me. It'll come back if it's worth it.

I've been a Nick Cave fan since the early '80s when he was part of The Birthday Party thing singing Australian self-destructive rock band and I've always followed his work and loved it.

I wanted us to share the sense that the number of wrong moves far exceeds the number of good moves, to share the frightening instability of the correct decision, to bond in being confounded.