Great books are written from a sense that there is nothing to lose.

Usually when people say they have mixed feelings about something, it's a sort of euphemistic way of saying they hate it.

One of the weird things about L.A. is that there's always a set of negative perceptions that attaches itself to this city.

It's hard enough to make a novel a novel. I wouldn't know how to make it something else at the same time

I'm going to write what I feel like writing, which is a great place to be. But it can be hard to get there. It's so easy to get stricken with one kind of self-consciousness or another.

You look at the absolute scorn that gets poured on a fallen celebrity, whether it's Tom Cruise or Lindsay Lohan or Marlon Brando, or Elvis when he got fat. They're not allowed the dignity of ordinary failure. And I think that plays into people's notions about Los Angeles, too. It's not allowed to be a regular city with problems.

A lot of talent, a lot of the currency that movies used to have, has spilled over into TV. People talk about TV the way they used to talk about movies and, as much as I hate to say it, the way they used to talk about books.