New Orleans cuisine is Creole rather than Cajun.

I've certainly learned a great deal from my husband, though, and could never have written a book like Liquor without him and the people he introduces me to and the stories he brings home.

You can only maintain an immensely gothic attitude for so long before either killing yourself or beginning to feel like a poser.

Yeah, I think A Confederacy of Dunces is probably the perfect New Orleans book.

It was like discovering that your innermost fires and terrors, the things you believed no one else could fathom, were in fact the basis of a recognized philosophy. Some part of you felt intimately invaded, threatened; some other part fell to its knees and sobbed in gratitude that it was no longer alone.

Horror is the badge of humanity, worn proudly, self-righteously, and often falsely.

If you're a freelance writer and aren't used to being ignored, neglected, and generally given short shrift, you must not have been in the business very long.