With publicity comes humiliation.

Long after the bomb falls and you and your good deeds are gone, cockroaches will still be here, prowling the streets like armored cars.

I felt my whole life was a facsimile of a life.

Brownstein's is a fresh and jaunty voice, with a jazz snap all his own.

I think it's true about people now being closer to their parents, since the '60s, really. The parents are no longer from a different planet, the 1950s ideas of American family. We could be friends with our parents. After the '60s, it wasn't like a person smoking pot was what the parents would be appalled at.

Crimes, sins, nightmares, hunks of hair: it was surprising how many of them has something to dispose of. The more I charged, the easier it was for them to breathe freely once more.

As a writer, I don't think it's my responsibility to make a point. I just write and hope there's someone who'll like it.