Only peons made excusses for themselves she taught me. Never apologize, never explain.

I use my fiction to explore my own unconscious issues. I usually don't even know what's going on with me until I'm writing.

I love Derrick Brown for the surprise of one word waking up next to another. One moment tender, funny or romantic, the next, visceral, ironic and relevatory-here is the full chaos of life. An amazing talent.

No matter how unappealing, each of them imagines he is somehow worthy.

She kissed me on the mouth. Her mouth tasted like iced coffee and cardamom, and I was overwhelmed by the taste, her hot skin and the smell of unwashed hair. I was confused, but not unwilling. I would have let her do anything to me.

My father was an engineer - he wasn't literary, not a writer or a journalist, but he was one of the world's great readers. Every two weeks, he'd take me to our local branch library and pull books off the shelf for me, stacking them up in my arms - 'Have you read this? And this? And this?"

I'm always looking for something new and interesting to say. And it can't be something I'm directly experiencing.