Literature is a mystical place for me. It's not dry. It's where miracles happen.

I'm so disconnected from an indie-rock community that I am the hermit people used to guess I was.

Our [former] governor [Pat McCrory] was supposed to be a moderate, but he found himself beholden to people who have much more draconian ideas. I think he assumed this stuff flew under the radar.

I still get really excited looking at stuff that I've seen every day for 20 years.

It usually happens that I have multiple different projects going on at once, and one can be referencing the other.

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.

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.