The dead have a presence.

I like the construction of sentences and the juxtaposition of words-not just how they sound or what they mean, but even what they look like.

I think more than writers, the major influences on me have been European movies, jazz, and Abstract Expressionism.

We seem to believe it is possible to ward off death by following rules of good grooming.

As technology advances in complexity and scope, fear becomes more primitive.

No sense of the irony of human experience, that we are the highest form of life on earth, and yet ineffably sad because we know what no other animal knows, that we must die.

I've come to think of Europe as a hardcover book, America as the paperback version.

I don’t want your candor. I want your soul in a silver thimble.

What we are reluctant to touch often seems the very fabric of our salvation.

California deserves whatever it gets. Californians invented the concept of life-style. This alone warrants their doom.

A writer takes earnest measures to secure his solitude and then finds endless ways to squander it.

It is not the strength of your faith but the object of your faith that actually saves you. Strong faith in a weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch.

It was easier when all we wanted to do was eat them and take their stuff, ” he grumbled.And it had been easier when he hadn’t cared if he made any of them cry.

There is no personal charm so great as the charm of a cheerful temperament.

The genres change but all of my stories feature ordinary people thrown into frightening, life-altering situations.

Young people are more intelligent and sophisticated.

Music is my life. The only other thing I've done is office work in different places. But no real professional career other than singing.

Bisexuality means I am free and I am as likely to want to love a woman as I am likely to want to love a man, and what about that? Isn't that what freedom implies?

Food is a passion because I basically grew up in a kitchen. My mother was a gourmet chef and I'm the youngest of five kids. We would always congregate in the kitchen.

Some things you don't have to tell. Some things, between sisters, are understood.

All the wonders you seek are within yourself.