I have a horror of silence while I'm writing. It's like the universe is howling at me if I don't have it.

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.

How far can your imagination take you? I don't know. That's up to you, but I think you should find out.

Was your magic carpet out of commission?

I used to worry about being cool. Now I realize that I genuinely don't care.

I find it so funny that people find me so interesting.

By rubbing up against the world, I define myself to myself.

We are bound, you and I, and nothing on this earth shall part me from you.

I cried for madder music and for stronger wine.

It's hard to get personal films off the ground, and it's hard developing them.

The process of competitively selecting contractors to perform work is based on a system of rewards and penalties, all distributed randomly.

Like anyone who has a relationship with Jesus knows, the coolest thing about it is that it's infinite how much you can learn and begin to understand. It's something that grabbed me.