Writers write about what obsesses them. You draw those cards. I lost my mother when I was 14. My daughter died at the age of 6. I lost my faith as a Catholic. When I'm writing, the darkness is always there. I go where the pain is.

In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity.

The only pain in pleasure is the pleasure of the pain.

It's an awful truth that suffering can deepen us, give a greater lustre to our colours, a richer resonance to our words.

What does it mean to die when you can live until the end of the world?

The thing should have plot and character, beginning, middle and end. Arouse pity and then have a catharsis. Those were the best principles I was ever taught.

My own funeral, I'd like to be laid out in a coffin in my own house. I would like my coffin to be put in the double parlor, and I would like all the flowers to be white.