People always talk about good time rock and roll, Chuck Berry or whatever, like this liberating force for feeling good. But what I need in my life is to be liberated into feeling bad. Not sad. I have plenty of sad. What I need is a place where I can spray anger in sparks like a gnarled piece of electrical cable. Just be mad at stuff and soak in the helplessness.

I make up stories that take place in real space with real people. If I could convert this into a technique for experimental novels, I might really be onto something.

There's this idea that there was a point in our childhood when we were in some way better than we are now and we should try to hang on to that.

A novel is a performance you have to plan.

In wrestling, people just throw each other around, possibly actually bleed, and are still friends in the locker room afterwards. But there's a real glee - a feeling goes up in the arena, especially on non-TV days. If it's just people in a room and somebody starts to bleed, that's very exciting.

I couldn't name more than a couple of good drum'n'bass acts, and I have no idea what's big in the dance world right now.

I really love Durham more than any place I've ever been; some small towns can be really provincial and strangling, but Durham is the best city in the world.