I think people deceive themselves about themselves, particularly as they get older.

Autobiography is not important. Authenticity is important. The writer must fire herself through the text, be the molten stuff that welds together disparate elements. I believe there is always exposure, vulnerability, in the writing process, which is not to say it is either confessional or memoir. Simply, it is real.

Art saved me; it got me through my depression and self-loathing, back to a place of innocence.

Book collecting is an obsession, an occupation, a disease, an addiction, a fascination, an absurdity, a fate. It is not a hobby. Those who do it must do it.

Darkness as well as light. Or do I mean darkness, another kind of light? Lucifer would say so, and I have a weakness for fallen angels.

We shall all die, and our lives will be irrelevant then.

I don't read reviews because by then it's too late - whatever anyone says, the book won't change. It is written.