There are worse things you can do to the people you love than kill them. The regular way is just to watch the world do it. Just read the newspaper.

What you write should entertain you and serve you first. Don't worry about maintaining anything beyond your own attention. Focus on exorcising your demons in the work. If you can do that, then you'll succeed in the world.

Picture anybody growing up so stupid he didn't know that hope is just another phase you'll grow out of.

As a child of the 1970s, I couldn't hold a narrative in my head; I was lucky if I could hold a joke in my head, because every time you turn on television or radio, it wipes the slate clean - at least in my case. After I gave up television, I found I could carry longer and longer stories or ideas in my head and put them together until I was carrying an entire short story. That's pretty much when I started writing.

You tell yourself that noise is what defines silence. Without noise, silence would not be golden. Noise is the exception.

If you love something set it free, but don't be surprised if it comes back with herpes.

I'm sorry if this all seems a little rushed and desperate. It is.