To write a novel is to embark on a quest that is very romantic. People have visions, and the next step is to execute them. That's a very romantic project. Like Edvard Munch's strange dreamlike canvases where people are stylized, like 'The Scream.' Munch must have had that vision in a dream, he never saw it.

Art is about freedom of expression, and should not be molded to fit any propaganda or lofty ideal.

The body can't distinguish between cleansing and punishing for the body is ignorant, and mute besides.

And this is the forbidden truth, the unspeakable taboo - that evil is not always repellent but frequently attractive; that it has the power to make of us not simply victims, as nature and accident do, but active accomplices.

Sometimes I read reviews, and without exception I will read critical essays that are sent to me. The critical essays are interesting on their own terms.

Your punishment if you're a woman. Not loved enough.

Love is an indescribable sensation - perhaps a conviction, a sense of certitude.