People will listen to you only when they know you're dying, otherwise they're just waiting for their turn to talk.

That’s the American Dream: to make your life into something you can sell.

My books are more about people experimenting with different identities and social models in a short-term way before they can break through to something authentic.

Now this is the first rule of fight club: There is nothing a blue collar Nobody in Oregon with a public school education can imagine that a million-billion people haven't already done.

In the world I see you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rock feller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Towers. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying stripes of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighways.

The only thing I shy away from is non-consensual violence. I can't write a story where someone is a simple victim because it's boring.

Maybe we have to break everything to make something better out of ourselves.