Mick Jagger is about as sexy as a pissing toad.

I think the only person a writer has an obligation to is himself. If what I write doesn't fulfill something in me, if I don't honestly feel it's the best I can do, then I'm miserable.

I always felt that nobody was going to understand me, going to understand what I felt about things. I guess that's why I started writing. At least on paper I could put down what I thought.

Fame is only good for one thing - they will cash your check in a small town.

Talent, and genius as well, is like a grain of pearl sand shifting about in the creative mind. A valued tormentor.

Hot weather opens the skull of a city, exposing its white brain, and its heart of nerves, which sizzle like the wires inside a lightbulb. And there exudes a sour extra-human smell that makes the very stone seem flesh-alive, webbed and pulsing.

I've never been a teacher in my life.