I just thought it was important that people knew right from the jump that I've got problems. But in all seriousness, that's a huge part of my writing process.

For the book to succeed, it has to have equal parts ugliness and beauty, counterpoints adding up to emotional complexity. To me, there's a dignity in letting your art be emotionally complex.

I'm a semi-failed writer, but I'm a capital-F Failed musician.

I always feel that as the author, once I know what a character is ashamed of, then I can go about making her truthful on the page.

In my life the right question is simply this: What can I do to be happy today?

They say you have to get and stay sober for yourself, and of course I agree with that, but I've really appreciated the added stakes of having someone relying on me for survival. My daughter makes me want to do right. That doesn't mean I won't relapse again. It's happened to me before. But she adds a layer of love in my life that I've never known.

Hughes' debut novel, At Dawn, follows a former All-American wrestler, and is there any better metaphor for contemporary American life? We're all wrestling, tussling with the economy, no jobs, doing the best we can. Hughes doesn't flinch from the tough existential questions. He embraces them.