You can't be beautiful," Brandy says about a thousand times, "until you feel beautiful.

Everybody looks a little crazy if you're looking close enough and if you can't look that close, then you don't really love them.

Intellectual culture seems to separate high art from low art. Low art is horror or pornography or anything that has a physical component to it and engages the reader on a visceral level and evokes a strong sympathetic reaction. High art is people driving in Volvos and talking a lot. I just don't want to keep those things separate. I think you can use visceral physical experiences to illustrate larger ideas, whether they're emotional or spiritual. I'm trying to not exclude high and low art or separate them.

Personal identity seems like it's just such an American archetype, from Holly Golightly re-inventing herself in 'Breakfast At Tiffany's' to Jay Gatsby in 'The Great Gatsby.' It seems like the sort of archetypal American issue. If you're given the freedom to be anything, or be anyone, what do you do with it?

We all have this moment, when your folks first see you as someone not growing up to be them.

I don't care what they do with my book so long as the flippin check clears.

I don't know the difference between what I want and what I'm trained to want.