Other people, some other writers, will win certain accolades or sell in far greater numbers than me - and I'm a legitimate best-selling author - but I live and die for the work. That's thrilling to me. It's thrilling that I do for others what certain writers did for me when I was a kid.

I would like to provoke ambiguous responses in my readers.

As critical acclaim and response has built up, every interview I give is a chance to puncture the myth I've created about my work and refine it.

Dead people belong to the live people who claim them most obsessively.

I like to be alone so I can write. But focus can hurt you. I don't want to be some stress casualty in early middle age.

I work within the framework of a very concerted, purely driven Protestant Christian mindset. I had dark early circumstances. I went inward. I have a sturdy will. I have a big heart. I'm a decent guy. And I have a great gift. It's blunted me to the world in many ways.

I wanted to portray a newly democratized, enclosed society. I wanted to show how extraordinarily fluid people are in their embrace of other human beings.