The villain of any story is often the most compelling character.

So I am a product of the Internet, and to some degree a product of this sensibility of constant cultural reference.

I don't know if you've ever been shoved into the bow of a nutshell pram, a boat that is very easily almost liftable with one hand, and quite tippy, and is being piloted by a 12-year-old, but it is the true feeling of having your life in someone else's hands, and it's very precarious.

My memories of literary agenting are of a very happy time and there are surprising reminders of it coming back now.

A lot of my time is spent reading antique or out-of-print books of reference.

You are only pretentious if you are not sincere.

When you're a young person, you are biologically driven to believe you are immortal, and that's why you engage in all kinds of risky behavior you stop once you feel death's cruel breath on your neck. I think that as a straight white man in particular, I was tempted to believe that I was immortal and eternal because, after all, in this culture, straight white dudes are the heroes of every story that you see or read about with very rare exception. So how could the story go on without the hero, you know?