This was a place where tattoos outnumbered teeth.

I always think the insecurity is going to go away, but it's always there. Only bad writers think they're good.

The book I always say that influenced me, subconsciously, because at the time I didn't know I wanted to be a writer, was William Goldman's 'Marathon Man.' That was the first adult thriller that I loved. I read it when I was 15 or so, when my father gave it to me.

Its funny how you can let yourself forget for seconds, how even in the heat of the horrible, you can have moments when you fool yourself into thinking it might all be okay

In short, the satisfaction of creating, not necessarily the process, always lifts my heart.

You can't have an up without a down, a right without a left, a back without a front - or a happy without a sad.

I'm also inspired by anything that I consider great. It makes me want to raise my game too - Hitchcock movies, Hopper paintings, Springsteen concerts.