A child should never even think about being a "good son." A parent decides that fate for the child. The parent encourages that. Not the child himself. And the "perfect dad"? I shudder at thinking what that may be.

I like the idea of a writer being haunted by his own creation, especially if the writer resents the way the character defines him.

Baby, when you were young and your heart was an open book, you used to say live and let live. You know you did, you know you did, you know you did.

Writing a novel is not method acting and I find it easy to step out of it at cocktail hour.

I write books to relieve ­myself of pain. That's the prime motivator to write. Period.

Greed is good. Sex is easy. Youth is forever.

I learned that you really don't have any control as a writer. Waah, waah, waah. Big deal. Unless you're the director on the movie, or putting up the money for the movie, you really don't have a lot of control. As someone who's just writing scripts, you just kind of have to shrug. I have no problems or issues with screenwriting in general. It is what it is.