Of all the purposes of education, I think the most useful is this: It prepares you to keep yourself entertained. It gives you a better chance of an interesting job.

When I write, I fall into the zone many writers, painters, musicians, athletes, and craftsmen of all sorts seem to share: In doing something I enjoy and am expert at, deliberate thought falls aside and it is all just THERE. I think of the next word no more than the composer thinks of the next note.

Horror fans are a particular breed. They analyze films with such detail and expertise that I am reminded of the Canadian literary critic Northrup Frye, who approached literature with similar archetypal analysis.

Sometimes, it's all about the casting.

When I am writing my problems become invisible and I am the same person I always was. All is well. I am as I should be.

We live in a box of space and time. Movies are windows in its walls.

I lost faith in the Oscars the first year I was a movie critic - the year that Bonnie and Clyde didn't win.