I believe so deeply in the primacy of language, in lifting your prose to the highest level you're capable of and making your words symphonic.

L.A. burns, and so many other cities smolder, waiting for the hose that will flood gasoline over the coals, and we listen to politicians who fuel our hate and our narrow views and tell us it's simply a matter of getting back to basics while they sit in their beachfront properties and listen to the surf so they won't have to hear the screams of the drowning.

In Greek tragedy, they fall from great heights. In noir, they fall from the curb.

I was blessed to grow up in really interesting times and to go back to a home where I was very safe.

I held her, he wanted to say, and if I knew for certain that all it would take to hold her again would be to die, then I couldn't raise the gun to my head fast enough.

Do you know the primary difference between men and gods? ... Gods don’t think they can become men

I have a lot of rage about things that didn't happen to me, tied up with watching an immigrant, working-class father struggle to make his way through the world - and seeing how society was modeled to keep him in his place.