My books are elegiac in the sense that they're ode...

My dad had this rock hard body and would work 12- to 13-hour days. The guys he worked with were scrap-iron guys. Nobody on that road crew had read a book in 10 years, but there was something about the way they lived I really admired.

Truth be told, I'm not an easy man. I can be an entertaining one, though it's been my experience that most people don't want to be entertained. They want to be comforted.

You just kind of have faith. If that sounds kind of mystical, it's because I really don't know how it works, but I trust that it does. I try to write the way I read, in order to find out what happens next.

My view is that at a younger age your optimism is more and you have more imagination etc. You have less bias.

Being an actor is the loneliest thing in the world. You are all alone with your concentration and imagination, and that's all you have.

I had a very happy childhood, but I wasn't that happy a child. I liked being alone and creating characters and voices. I think that's when your creativity is developed, when you're young. I liked the world of the imagination because it was an easy place to go to.

I have a huge, active imagination, and I think I'm really scared of being alone because if I'm left to my own devices, I'll just turn into a madwoman.