I was darkly convinced that at age 52 I would kill myself because my mother committed suicide at that age. I was fantasizing that she was waiting for me on the other side of the grave.

When I was in therapy about two years ago, one day I noticed that I hadn't had any children. And I like children at a distance. I wondered if I'd like them up close. I wondered why I didn't have any. I wondered if it was a mistake, or if I'd done it on purpose, or what. And I noticed my therapist didn't have any children either. He had pictures of his cats on the wall. Framed.

I'm kind of this control freak that likes to create his own hells before the real one can get to him

Everything is contingent, and there is also chaos.

To be famous is to be stuck in an inflexible place. But at least it is to be stuck with money.

I see [my pen] as an extension of my musculature. It's like being a painter. It's the closest I can get to my breath.

I refer to jet lag as 'jet-psychosis - there's an old saying that the spirit cannot move faster than a camel.