I collect things that just look retarded.

I had this whole ritual with my mother making the bed with me inside it so I would be invisible.

The way this whole novel thing came together was, I sold them one bill of goods and then didn't communicate very well. I am like Captain Run-on Sentence.

When we had to do book reports, I would pick a book that no one read and just make it up and turn that in. I got praised for my imagination.

My father would often work all night and sleep during the day, so for us, dinner might be pancakes, and breakfast might be beef stroganoff.

I've always wanted to have a book published - it was a dream of mine, but the thought of actually writing a book made me feel really sick.

I would ask my parents something, but then go to my siblings. We were encouraged to bounce ideas off everyone.

I think what my father appreciated was the science experiment of life. He had these kids, and they had their own experiences. He wanted us to discover the world for ourselves.

I didn't read at all until I was 12. I just couldn't. It was too frustrating.

At 12 I dropped out of school but I had lost interest in it at a much earlier age. For me, school was very very stressful.

I definitely have managed to overcome dyslexia now to become a fully functional human being but things were a lot more difficult when I was younger.

I had thought that words were instruments of precision. Now I know that they devour the world, leaving nothing in its place.

her grass seemed greener until a drought cameand cracked the earth beneath you.

If we're not going to take full advantage of digital, then 35mm is a better medium. Especially for shooting dramas - I have no problem with 35mm.

What if I slept a little more and forgot about all this nonsense.

There's a humorous side to every situation. The challenge is to find it.

A writer's job is to imagine everything so personally that the fiction is as vivid as memories.

Someone stole my bicycle and I said I was going to learn to fight so that I could catch him and beat him up. But I never did catch him. But I ended up the champ of the whole world.

It requires but a few threads of hope, for the heart that is skilled in the secret, to weave a web of happiness.