We're a culture that's obsessed with people who make and who squander ridiculous amounts of wealth, which seemed an obsession well worth interrogating in a novel. That probably accounts for what some have called the book's "sweeping" feel, but I don't know that I set out to be cinematic. I wouldn't know how to do that in a novel, specifically.

When I moved to SF in my early 20s, I loved it, but I was absolutely astonished to discover that people there hated L.A. I was just like why? Really? I had no idea.

Everybody says, TV is great, the writer has so much power. I'm still trying to convince myself that's true. When do the writers ever have power? Ever? They don't. Even in the book industry.

Even though I think writers can sometimes thrive from being misread. It can give them something to push off of.

We go to literature because it shows us some set of humane values. It is showing us how to live.

My parents were very patient with my pretentious little adolescent snobberies. It took me awhile to accept them.

People will continue to make movies. But I do think the economic model of the studio movie is closing in on a kind of systemic collapse.