I thought, you know, I would probably not have seen that. On the other hand, he's obviously completely telling the truth. So, then what is that? That's - I wanted to explore that. And then I wanted to talk about how ideas are born. And the big question that the book asks in a number of ways about a number of things is that. How does a new idea come into the world?

Certainly, the Hollywood cinema, there's almost nothing of interest coming out of there.

If you want to draw people into the story, you really have to write as if you're writing a novel and make these actually-existing people, including the actually-existing person with my name, into a believable person on the page. And that requires distance. That requires not being right up against the events you're talking about.

Sometimes, people trying to commit suicide manage it in a manner that leaves them breathless with astonishment.

When we stop believing in the gods we can start believing in their stories.

The Chinese are good at repression and can be pretty ruthless about it.

When you have children, your perspective on the parent-child relationship alters.