I like a great degree of compression. I like to mix lateral steps with forward ones. I don't want the prose ever to feel simply functional - at least not for any stretch.

Paranoia can be a sign of a sanity in some circumstances, in some places and times.

The idea that language can be recombined to create new forms, new things, is of course very old in poetry.

I love poetry, read it a lot, but make no claim to being able to write it.

We can't write a serious novel in the 21st century without acknowledging the inescapable self-awareness we're stuck with. The idea we're surrounded by falsehoods and lies. It's hard for the thinking person to believe in narratives. And yet we want some place to invest our belief.

The novel's not the best form for disposing ideas, though that's one thing it can do. It likely is the best form, though, for conveying the experience of us each being alone, trapped in our skulls with only these bodies and this imperfect instrument of language to convey our state and to find meaning and connection.

I just write what I want to read, and sometimes keeping it interesting means adding one more element that ends up adding another year to the work.