The things that I have loved have always been those extremes where there has been some kind of apocalypse in the person's life, and they come out unscathed or scathed.

Most book things now (with a few exceptions) are just built around nice, safe books written for nice and safe book club readers. These are usually the books you see on display at Barnes and Noble. These Internet writers are like literary terrorists to me. They're training as we speak. They're getting ready to invade. They're building an army.

Everybody is so goddamn sure of themselves, it just makes you realize this is the curse of the modern world.

New York exists for me. Not me for it.

In memoir, can you really tell the truth about yourself? You're not going to write about your little peccadilloes, like, "I like a finger in my ass during sex." Or whatever it is. You're not going to come out in typical everyday conversation and say that. That's something that's going to be only for a select few.

Most of the answers to the world could be answered with our bodies.

We're artists. We cry out to be exploited on some level. Write a dissertation on my work. Write a biography about me.