For all the books in his possession, he still failed to read the stories written plain as day in the faces of the people around him.

I tend to be so lost in the work that I don't notice the weather. My partner will come home and say, 'Beautiful day, wasn't it?' and I'll say, 'Was it?' as I won't have noticed the real world at all.

I'm very interested in how idealistic young people can get caught up in all sorts of systems of extreme belief, you know, whether it's cults or whether it's suicide bombers.

For all the books in his possession, he still failed to read the stories written plain as day in the faces of the people around him.

It's painful to consider anything but writing.

...Sometimes I suspect that what had really happened was that we became more resigned, more cynical, raised our pain thresholds as we lowered our expectations. All in all, settled for less.

There's not a thing wrong with you, you're right the whole way through.