I'm my own "ideal reader" in the sense that I write novels that I would want to read.
Steve EricksonWestern music is arguably America's greatest contribution to the 20th century, cultural or otherwise.
Steve EricksonFor better or worse I'm the writer I am today because of hearing those Dylan records. For better and most certainly not for worse, I'm the person I am today because of hearing Charles.
Steve EricksonThese days in particular it seems not only unavoidable but even irresponsible to not acknowledge politics in some way.
Steve EricksonWhile a particularly deft sense of irony may be one of the tools of great storytellers, I think it's also true that if irony serves as a retreat from an emotional engagement that you're overly concerned is uncool, that's a failure of nerve.
Steve EricksonOut of the house and on my own, I faced the fact I didn't much like who I was. I didn't like my judgmentalism; I didn't like my absolutism. I didn't like my repression of natural empathy, my pinched lack of emotional generosity. How I had been thinking politically had less to do with what was wrong with the world and more to do with what was wrong with me, with my fears and insecurities, failings, weaknesses.
Steve Erickson