My parents would frisk me before family events, and find the book, and lock it in the car. And then be disappointed where, somewhere at the event, I would find a book and sit under a table where nobody could get me and go back into book land.

The view changes from where you are standing. Words can wound, and wounds can heal. All of these things are true.

It is not that I was credulous, simply that I belived in all things dark and dangerous. It was part of my young creed that the night was full of ghosts and witches, hungry and flapping and dressed completely in black.

People take on the shapes of the songs and the stories that surround them, especially if they don't have their own song.

I started writing when I was about 20, 21 maybe.

I learned to write by writing. I tended to do anything as long as it felt like an adventure, and to stop when it felt like work, which meant that life did not feel like work.

All good technology should be used to piss off people's parents.