I believe writers need to be chameleons, or like Meryl Streep, who can play all sorts of characters. A good writer should be able to cross gender lines and people of all social classes. So for me, writing from a male point of view would be a great challenge, that I would look forward to taking on.

His characters are ravaged, beaten. They walk through infernos and emerged charred doves.

I'm not afraid of total failure. In the end, we're all just food for worms, so what are we so worried about?

Juliet and Romeo be damned, you can't be in love until you've flossed your teeth next to the person at least three hundred times.

For every man there exists bait he cannot resist swallowing.

He said you couldn't pretend the terrible things in life didn't happen. You can't clean it up. You keep all the refuse and the scars. It's how you learn. And try to make improvements.

Sometimes it takes more courage not to let yourself see. Sometimes knowledge is damaging - not enlightenment but enleadenment.