By removing the stories from the morass of things that surround us, I'm hoping to achieve some kind of purer approach to emotional life.

I try not to become too regular an addict of any one subculture.

I never take any notes or draw charts or make elaborate diagrams, but I hold an image of the shape of a book in my head and work from that mental hologram.

I've never related to the work geek at all-it sounds much more horrible than nerd. Like a freak biting a chicken's head off in a sideshow.

I learned to write fiction the way I learned to read fiction - by skipping the parts that bored me.

Someday I would change my name to Shut Up and save everybody a lot of time.

I work on a laptop specifically so I can work in cafes and pretend I'm part of the human world.

What age is a black boy when he learns he's scary?

It was only as I wrote about fear that I began to find paths of access to feelings that were intolerable to me then.

I want what we all want," said Carl. "To move certain parts of the interior of myself into the exterior world, to see if they can be embraced.

I can't bear the silent ringing in my skull.

Speaking from my own religious tradition in this Christmas season, 2,000 years ago a homeless woman gave birth to a homeless child in a manger because the inn was full.

The most important step of all is the first step. Start something.

None of my problems come from the people I've killed.

I'm screaming for help and everybody's acting as if I'm singing Ethel Merman covers.

I adore wearing gems, but not because they are mine. You can't possess radiance, you can only admire it.

I don't know if all the women in the photographs are beautiful, but I do know that the women are beautiful in the photographs.

You doubt because you love truth.

Kindness acts Not always as you think; a hated hand Renders it odious.

Money is not everything. There's Master card & Visa.

The threat to globalization is not the wasted American dollars but Washington's readiness to mix US commercial interests with its self-appointed role as global protector.