Radio - and perhaps airplanes, and then of course, the atom bomb - was the preeminent technology of the first half of the 20th century. It was how the Third Reich controlled its citizens, spread lies, and disseminated fear.

To say a person is a happy person or an unhappy person is ridiculous. We are a thousand different kinds of people every hour.

Watching teething babies is like watching over a thermonuclear reactor-it is best done in shifts, by well-rested people.

Invisible Beasts is a strange and beautiful meditation on love and seeing, a hybrid of fantasy and field guide, novel and essay, treatise and fable. With one hand it offers a sad commentary on environmental degradation, while with the other it presents a bright, whimsical, and funny exploration of what it means to be human. It's wonderfully written, crazily imagined, and absolutely original.

I never played inside as a kid - even in the rain I'd go out.

Travel definitely affects me as a writer.

Anyone who has spent a few nights in a tent during a storm can tell you: The world doesn't care all that much if you live or die.