I write less about alcohol, less and less and less. You 're an addict - so of course you write about the thing you love most. I loved alcohol the most, loved it more than anybody or anything. That's what I wrote about. And it certainly accounted for some great writing. But it accounted for two or three years of good writing - it would never account for 20 years of good writing. I would have turned into Charles Bukowski. He wrote 10,000 poems and 10 of them were great.

I thought I’d been condescended to as an Indian - that was nothing compared to the condescension for writing Y.A.

I grabbed my book and opened it up. I wanted to smell it. Heck, I wanted to kiss it. Yes, kiss it. That's right, I am a book kisser. Maybe that's kind of perverted or maybe it's just romantic and highly intelligent.

I wanted to do a weird book and reestablish my independent, small-press roots.

The world is divided by two different tribes. The people who are assholes and the people who are not.

I don't have to participate in another culture's ceremonies in order to respect that culture.

It's not oil that runs the world, it's shame.