I think that sense of unreality inspired me to write the story within the book that [August] Brill tells himself, one of the stories he tells himself.

It seems to me that I will always be happy in the place where I am not.

It would be a terrible world if everyone was an artist. Nothing would get done!

When you're young, you keep reading new writers and you keep changing your mind about how you ought to sound.

He would conclude that nothing was real except chance.

I am very scared at the beginning of each book, because I've never written it before. I feel I have to teach myself how to do it.

Most people just want to be part of the world, they want to live, love, and enjoy themselves - to take part in the world around them. Whereas artists are always retreating, locking the door, and inventing other worlds.