The most oblivious people are often the happiest.

I love that Voltaire was so willing to shock his readers with arbitrary cruelty. And I can completely relate to it.

I'm enthralled by the national yearning that the Russians had during the 50s and 60s. The whole century was pretty rough for them. They suffered genocide, war, poverty, and half the population was sent to labor camps. But they were determined to get into space first.

You have to respect people's suffering. To deny that the world is unfair and painful for most of the people living in it would be false and judgmental.

I guess I'm drawn to religion because I can be provocative without harming something people really care about, like their cars.

As a writer you sometimes feel the need to shake things up.

I find that the creative side of my brain and the archival side of my brain don't work well together. When I've done my best work, I've been in a trance-like state.