I don't have extravagant tastes or expenses - like with cars, clothes, or whatever.

Art comes after the fact, as a witness to certain things that have happened.

Sometimes there's a vacuum that has to be covered.

In communist Russia, their major organ was Pravda, which means "truth." The Russians knew how to read between the lines. They didn't take their literature literally.

Art can be a kind of therapeutic, or kind of a fantasy life, or wish fulfillment...o r creating this alternate universe. Art gives me the freedom to do that.

My work is more driven by the creative word. It's immersed in other writing and printed work, rather than drawn so much from life or past experience.

Anyway, the way political history is passed down is influenced and spoiled by the closeness of the writers to the political figures that they're writing about. It's a sad state of affairs, but there's probably more veracity of reporting in my work than there is in the newspapers.