I think the book is less emotional than the film. With the film, the emotions are much more raw and in front. In the book, they are kind of ironized and seen through comedy.

War used to be something you could stand on the nearby hill and watch. Now we have total war; everybody's in it. We have total economics as well. Everything affects everybody. The Malaysian currency shakes, and people around the world are seriously affected.

When people use the term magic realism, usually they only mean 'magic' and they don't hear 'realism', whereas the way in which magic realism actually works is for the magic to be rooted in the real. It's both things. It's not just a fairytale moment. It's the surrealism that arises out of the real.

I'll tell you what divorce hasn't taught me. It didn't teach me not to get married again.

My horizon's have shrunk and I have only endings to write.

The fact of being alive compensated for what life did to one.

If you actually want to change your world, there is a better way of doing it than blowing yourself up.