The jocks that used to stuff me into a locker when I was a punk rocker are my best buddies now.

But once you publish a book, doesn’t it by definition become the realm of public discourse? Otherwise, wouldn’t we just write books and print them out ourselves, and give them to specific people we felt comfortable giving them to–like gifts? Isn’t publishing sort of a social contract?

You have to smile, if you expect anybody to smile back.

I love being a struggling artist; it makes me feel very alive.

I discovered John Fante when I was 17 years old - strangely, not through Charles Bukowski, but through William Saroyan, who was his drinking buddy.

Reading is, at its best, not an escape; it is genuine experience. A novel is not a monologue, but a conversation, a collaboration between writer and reader, an invaluable exchange of human conditions.

I usually write in my underwear, with a space heater running full blast, and three dogs sleeping at me feet.