Like a lot of writers, I just got sick to death of conventional fiction. I absolutely couldn't stand the illusion of reality and plot. I just couldn't stomach it.

I was born in Australia and grew up in the foreign services. I had this kind of trans-Pacific life. I think I was always sort of oriented towards here's Australia and here's America and here's the Pacific.

There's a lot of water in everything I've ever written. There's always oceans and pools.

You have to want something or you're finished.

I don't think you can have an imagination without having fantasy, and you can't have that rich a life without an imagination.

That was one of the problems with the Narcissus figure. Here is a face looking at a face, and the problem is the image of the thing is never actually the thing. You try and grab it and it's not there. It's water. It disappears.

I know perfectly well that you can't not want anything and live.