I write about things that scare me. I've never written a snake story in my life. I myself have never written a story about snakes because they don't scare me. I write about rats because they scare the hell out of me.

He found himself still with too many questions and not enough answers.

After the 9/11 apocalypse happened in New York City, people, particularly New Yorkers, who breathed in the ash, or saw the results of that, have a tendency to keep seeing echoes and having flashbacks to it.

We sometimes need to create unreal monsters and bogies to stand in for all the things we fear in our real lives.

Don't look back, never look back. How often do people tell themselves that after an experience that is exceptionally good (or exceptionally bad?)? Often, I suppose. And the advice usually goes unheeded. Humans were built to look back; that's why we have tat swivel joint in our necks.

I have to remind myself that some birds aren’t meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright.

Nightmares exist outside of logic, and there's little fun to be had in explanations; they're antithetical to the poetry of fear.