“I think cultures of conformity produce vast quantities of shame, both in people who simply can't conform and people who do conform, but underneath, they're not feeling conformist.”

“It's just a matter of writing the kind of book I enjoy reading. Something better be happening at the beginning, and then on every page after, or I get irritated.”

“I don't even read positive reviews unless they are absolutely certified by eight different people to not contain one thing that could upset me.”

“Fiction is a solution, the best solution, to the problem of existential solitude.”