I drink coffee. Without coffee, I probably couldnt write.

Some ego is involved because I guess one wants to be perceived as a good clown and one puts one's name on the art; but it's so hard to do anything in life, trapped as we are in our bodies, that is purely selfless for others... somehow the self is always involved.

The work changes the way your face changes and ages - it just does. Also, I have very little connection to anything I've written. I move on. We all move on

It's hard to leave New York: this is where my friends are, my parents are. It is so vital. The whole world seems to look to New York.

People don't expect too much from literature. They just want to know they're not alone with being confused.

Even when I was living below the poverty line as a novelist, I was still living better than 99.5% of the human population of the world. But in my little, soft realm of trying to amuse a few dozen middle-class people with my books and articles, I did struggle to survive in my own way.

I drink coffee. Without coffee, I probably couldnt write.