“As a journalist, I interviewed people, and you begin to feel different rhythms in speech, and you can use those things to help carve out a character.”

“If you actually hang out in the countryside, which I did, it's actually quite peaceful.”

“Things fall apart and happen out of stupidity and carelessness.”

“More and more I lived in books, they were my comfort, refuge, addiction, compensation for the humiliations that attended contact with the world outside.”