I guess I can picture things once they're done - I just can't picture actually doing them.

I can tell from about 20 yards away when someone has a manuscript for me. I can just tell - they have that look.

I think people got in touch with me either knowing my work, or probably more frequently just knowing a plot or sort of buzz about something I did and sort of saying, "Get that guy that writes the crazy stuff in here."

When you are a child, you often stare too closely at the wrong thing. I remember the first time I was taken to Yankee Stadium. Someone had spilled something sweet earlier in the day and the ground was covered with ants. I spent the whole game staring at the ants, and that was more fascinating than the game.

My relationship with my readers is somewhat theatrical. One of the main things I try to do in my work is delight my readers.

I was an infinitely hot and dense dot.

People really want to believe that there is no fiction. I think they find it much easier to imagine that novelists are writing memoirs, writing about their lives, because it's difficult to conceive that there's a great imaginary life in which you can participate.