never's the word God listens for when he needs a laugh.

If you're going into a very dark place, then you should take a bright light, and shine it on everything. If you don't want to see, why in God's name would you dare the dark at all?

I want to engage the reader. I'm an emotional writer, in the sense that I would be happy if you re-read a book for the intellectual or the mental part of it, but, the first time, I just like to reach out and grab you, pull you in.

We'll just have to get along. That's what people do, you know? They just get along. And try to help each other.

Some birds are not meant to be caged, that's all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure.

I can't lie and say there are no bad writers. Sorry, but there are lots of bad writers.

I wasn't a social drinker. I used to say that I didn't want to go to bars because they were full of assholes like me.