But there's the paradox of fiction - why do you cry when a fake character dies? It's the basis of art. You engage with people who don't exist and care about them as you would your friends and relatives.

It's part of what we call the Shadow, all the dark parts of us we can't face. It's the thing that, if we don't deal with it, eventually poisons our lives.

Does it matter, when you read, if the person who wrote still lives?

The Book of Air and Shadows' was born during a conference with an intellectual property lawyer on a particular afternoon in November of 2003.

The problem with evil people is that they can see only evil in others. It is one of the worst curses of being evil, that you can no longer experience good.

As a matter of fact I had a terribly traumatic childhood. But afterward I sort of reraised myself.

Professors go batty too, perhaps more often than other people, although owing to their profession, their madness is less often remarked.