Whereas the slums in Hamburg are the slums of its sailors, Berlin is a big slum.

And I'm working at trying to find a kind of language where I won't be so easily modulated by expectation.

Well, I think writing is basically about time and rhythm. Like with jazz. You have your basic melody and then you just riff off of it. And the riffs are about timing.

I understand that when people read my books that there's something there - but I don't identify with it.

Pain is the world. I don't have anywhere to run.

Life doesn't exist inside language: too bad for me.

Everytime you read, you are walking among the dead, and, if you are listening, you just might hear prophecies.