I think there is a complicated side effect to overcoming evil in that we are forever changed by it. I think after we ingest some of the cruelty of the world, it takes years off of our lives, but it also gives us wisdom and a little grace, hopefully a sense of compassion.
I think there's a lot of catastrophe in this world and a lot of cruelty and a lot of carelessness.
I don't inflict horrors on readers. In my research, I've uncovered truly terrible documentations of cruelty and torture, but I leave that offstage. I always pull back and let the reader imagine the details. We all know to one degree or another the horrors of war.
As a lifelong Democrat, I never thought I'd lead an effort to defend the symbol of the Republican Party. But when I saw the cruelty that Ringling inflicts on elephants every day across the country, I had to speak up.
I'm very touched on a deep level by cruelty to animals.
What I find most deplorable is cruelty of spirit - racism, casteism, and religious or social prejudice.
If there is a person behaving more destructively in popular culture than Mario Lavandeira, I cannot think of one. He has used cruelty as a crass mechanism to build up his own celebrity and has utilized political correctness to protect himself while using it as a weapon to dehumanize those he doesn't agree with.
As an old creative industry full of cruelty and moral sense, British journalism once flourished on the imperative that people required the truth in order to survive. But people don't require that now. They want sensation and they want it for nothing.
Sadly, of course, there is real evil in the world. You watch the news, and you see all of the people suffering and so much cruelty.
People are capable of incredible gallantry and terrible cruelty in situations of extreme duress. I tried to showcase that range in 'Enclave.'
