What I like is horror movies, including '80s slasher movies that politically I have all kinds of problems with. Which is an interesting balance, because I have this leftist puritan strain that, well, if you like something that goes against your politics, maybe you should train yourself not to like it. But I know that I like horror movies and that's what I watch when I get a moment.

When I was kid, they always used to tell me to keep notebooks. I look at my shelves now and it's just nothing but notebooks. And if I haven't gotten an idea but I have time to work, I'll pull one out and I bet there will be five or six sentences that will kick me off.

I'm kind of a hermit. Left to my own devices, I won't submerge myself in anything further afield than the driveway.

Take dance music: I like enough of it and its history to be able to say a word or two about this or that record, but I'm nobody's authority.

It's hard to stay positive when there's a lot of evil in the world.

I was 14 or 15 when I discovered poetry, and I pretty much stopped writing prose until Master of Reality.

Life is hard, you're tired, and there's disease. The strategy that works for children is to be delighted by the things that delight you.