I grew up with a rotary phone in my house and that seems a world away, but that's what I was used to as a kid. So now things seem complicated to me, but to kids born right now, they don't feel complicated.

I was an English major in university and that got me into novels, but I read a lot of books as a kid.

Acknowledging the lucky breaks are paramount to enjoying life. Not being defensive about our successes/failures. So, in short.

I think books are just a great ticket to get you outside of yourself. You can not be you for a second and live in the shoes of a character, which is a special thing.

I think that's why art prevails: because it helps people in a fairly intangible, magical way feel more connected to each other.

When you put a halo on concepts - gender roles, religion, nationality or pride - or you put a halo on any topic - anything that you hold dear like the relationship between a father and son or a mother and daughter, what it means to be married or what it means to be single or what it means to be a free spirit or what it means to be an artist - if you just put a halo on something and say it's untouchable - "that is special and that is perfect" - you immediately close your eyes to the truth of it, because the truth is that nothing is perfect.

Sometimes I just don't have time to wait for the muse to come, so I've developed things to force the muse to come back.