I think that some laughter comes from escaped horror, doesn't it?

Irony is the hardest addiction of all. Forget heroin. Just try giving up irony, the deep-down need to mean two things at once, to be in two places at once, not to be there for the catastrophe of a fixed meaning.

I see the author as the person who has written; the writer, the one involved in the process of writing. And they're not necessarily friends. The writer is the one I want to reinforce; the author would just feed on the reviews - so I'm in favour of starving him.

The thing about the 'Melrose' novels is that I have to feel they're impossible when I set out.

It seems people spend the majority of their lives believing they're dying, with the only consolation being that at one point they get to be right.

I'm really not responsible for what mental operation people have when they're reading my books other than the ones which are created by literary effects.

The first book I fell in love with was 'Little Toot,' the story of an adorable tugboat operating out of New York Harbor.