I love to act, I've always wanted to be an actor. I think that acting and fiction go nicely together - being able to visualize language as something you perform, not just something that's there on the page.

You are not what you want. You are what wants you back.

That's what I always liked about science fiction - you can make the world end. Humour is my multiple warhead delivery system.

I write five, six days a week. The thing is capturing the voice. I feel like I've been perfecting one voice - in different iterations, sure, but the Russian-ness has always been the undercurrent.

I was really not a good student, and I felt that shame every day. That's one of the reasons I started smoking pot and drinking daily.

A writer or any suffering artist-to-be is just an instrument too finely set to the human condition [...]

My parents were constantly afraid they would lose their jobs. The idea that we were always a paycheck away from disaster was drilled into me.