I think more than writers, the major influences on me have been European movies, jazz, and Abstract Expressionism.

True terror is a language and a vision. There is a deep narrative structure to terrorist acts, and they infiltrate and alter consciousness in ways that writers used to aspire to.

Silence, exile, cunning and so on... it's my nature to keep quiet about most things. Even the ideas in my work.

In my experience, writing a novel tends to create its own structure, its own demands, its own language, its own ending.

I think my work is influenced by the fact that we're living in dangerous times. If I could put it in a sentence, in fact, my work is about just that: living in dangerous times.

She became confused when she stepped onto an escalator that wasn't working.

As belief shrinks from the world, it is more necessary than ever that someone believe. Wild-eyed men in caves. Nuns in black. Monks who do not speak. We are left to believe. Fools, children. Those who have abandoned belief must still believe in us. They are sure they are right not to believe but they know belief must not fade completely. Hell is when no one believes.