My dad told me that no one could ever make it as a writer, that my chances were equivalent to winning the lottery - which was good for me, because I like to have something to prove.

New Orleans cuisine is Creole rather than Cajun.

In the Netherlands I read the first chapter of Exquisite Corpse to an audience that laughed in all the places I thought were funny - an experience I've never had in America!

The night is the hardest time to be alive and 4am knows all my secrets.

You hold onto what you have; you do not give it up easily, even when you know it is poisoning you.

You can only maintain an immensely gothic attitude for so long before either killing yourself or beginning to feel like a poser.

Some nights are made for torture, or reflection, or the savoring of loneliness.

I can't heal your pain but I can see it. And you don't have to be lost. Not forever.

Young writers shouldn't be afraid of striving to emulate their favorites. It's a good way to learn, as long as you move on from it and don't publish too many of the results.

Never relinquish your terrors. That's when they catch you.

Ive tried to avoid labels, but they always find you.

Funny how "question" contains the word "quest" inside it, as though any small question asked is a journey through briars.

When we aren't honest with ourselves about who we are and what we want, we allow other people and circumstance to determine our life course.

Your smile is the gift, all I ever wanted.

LINEN, n. "A kind of cloth the making of which, when made of hemp, entails a great waste of hemp."

I just liked to play football, no matter what the position.

Sometimes,' she said, 'it takes a woman to bring out the best in a man.

It is totally unacceptable that there are countries with no paediatric cardiac surgeries.

Bless us, divine number, who generated gods and men. Number contains the root and source of eternally flowing creation.

I don't like looking outrageous.

Regarding heroism, I grew up in a culture where you learn about heroes and heroines all the time. In a way, when you call someone a hero or heroine, it's the same as calling them a villain.