I don't think I want to write a third book. But the more people talk to me about it, the more I think maybe I do.

I read a lot of poetry. I read some history.

What I try to do is read stuff that won't deal with the dangerous dark things I hope I am writing about.

The best defense is a good story.

What to know about pain is how little we do to deserve it, how simple it is to give, how hard to lose.

If a writer is honest, if what is at stake for him can seem to matter to his readers, then his work may be read. But a writer will work anyway, as I do, and as I have, in part to explore this terra incognita, this dangerous ground I seem to need to risk.

I always want to read Gore Vidal's nonfiction. Because everything he writes is an essay and it's worth reading.