Grandfather's been dead all these years, but if you lifted my skull, by God, in the convolutions of my brain you'd find the big ridges of his thumbprint. He touched me. As I said earlier, he was a sculptor. 'I hate a Roman named Status Quo!' he said to me. 'Stuff your eyes with wonder,' he said, 'live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.

You feed yourself. Make sure you have all the information, whether it's aesthetic, scientific, mathematical, I don't care what it is. Then you walk away from it and let it ferment. You ignore it and pretend you don't care. Next thing you know, the answer comes.

The first stories I wrote when I was 12 were about Mars and landing on Mars.

You let the story cool off and then, instead of rewriting it, you relive it.

I don't like being up high. It took me three days to get to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

The first thing you learn in life is you're a fool. The last thing you learn in life is you're the same fool.

I have total recall. I remember being born. I remember being in the womb, I remember being inside. Coming out was great.