I definitely care about how the concept of New York punk was constructed, and why it mattered. But I wasn't gonna do that. Partly because I'm not a great journalist...

Some people have things written all over their faces; the big guy had a couple of words misspelled in crayon on his.

What age is a black boy when he learns he's scary?

I had always wanted to be a writer who confused genre boundaries and who was read in multiple contexts.

As much as I care about historical context - I'm very eager to read a really great historical account.

I've never related to the work geek at all-it sounds much more horrible than nerd. Like a freak biting a chicken's head off in a sideshow.

I keep one simple rule that I only move in one direction - I write the book straight through from beginning to end. By following time's arrow I keep myself sane.