The Internet is a big distraction. It's distracting, it's meaningless; it's not real. It's in the air somewhere.

You don't read in your own field. You read in that field when you're young, so that you can learn.

The reason I shift gears constantly, why I'm doing an opera, why I've done essays, why I've written poetry for years that nobody wanted, why I do short stories and novels and screenplays... is so I will have new ways of failing. This means becoming a student again.

Facts quite often, I fear to confess, like lawyers, put me to sleep at noon. Not theories, however. Theories are invigorating and tonic. Give me an ounce of fact and I will produce you a ton of theory by tea this afternoon. That is, after all, my job.

It was in their friendship they just wanted to run forever, shadow and shadow.

I don't tell anyone how to write and no one tells me.

Why go to a machine when you could go to a human being?