Ideas come at any moment -- except when you demand them. Most ideas come while I'm physically active, at the gym, with friends, gardening, so I always carry pen and paper. My first draft is always written in longhand. But once the first dozen chapters, more like short stories, are written, then momentum builds until I can't leave the project until it's done.

you ever been trapped in a world where you're everyone's worst nightmare?

I am an invisible monster, and I am incapable of loving anybody. You don't know which is worse.

People used what they called a telephone because they hated being close together and they were scared of being alone.

Don't do what you want. Do what you don't want. Do what you're trained not to want. Do the things that scare you the most.

As a culture, we believe that if we kill something, we've killed the issue. That's why so many books end with death, why so many plays end with death, because it's full resolution. I'm always curious to know what happens after Romeo and Juliet die. In a way, that's the beginning of the story. Maybe beyond the story is even better.

I'm not so much a good friend as I'm the savior who wants you to worship him forever.