But the day I can't shrug off a twinge of self-pity, is the day I'm washed up for keeps.

I've had the odd good luck of starting slowly and building gradually, something few writers are allowed anymore. As a result I've seen each of my books called the breakthrough. And each was, in its way.

I work on a laptop specifically so I can work in cafes and pretend I'm part of the human world.

My writing life is pretty simple - I try to work every day, almost always in the mornings - and I can only write fiction effectively for about three or at the most four hours. No big mysteries, I just sit down and try to advance the cause a little bit every day.

I got into underground comics fairly early on and kind of wandered away from the superhero stuff, but I was an art student and I was drawing a lot as a kid.

I have a horror of silence while I'm writing. It's like the universe is howling at me if I don't have it.

For me, music is sort of the art that I can't incorporate into my person the way I want to.