I'm from a time and place where bigheadedness was a really savage crime, and you'd get cut down for it by your peers and parents.

Any society's upper-crust is riddled with immorality, how else d'you think they keep their power? Reputation is king of the public sphere, not private. It is dethroned by public acts.

I understand now that boundaries between noise and sound are conventions. All boundaries are conventions, waiting to be transcended. One may transcend any convention if only one can first conceive of doing so.

Whoever dies with the most stuff wins.

Trees're always a relief, after people.

I'm not from a milieu where high-register language or philosophical ideas were welcome.

I think all writers of my age who are brought up on films probably by the age of 16 have seen many more films than they have read classics of literature. We can't help but be influenced by film. Film has got some great tricks that it's taught writers.