Definition, rationality, and structure are ways of seeing, but they become prisons when they blank out other ways of seeing.
I was a common man, and I will always remain a common man. No amount of stardom will ever consume my soul. Money comes, money goes. Fame comes, fame goes. I believe every human being is a celebrity in their own right.
My mother insisted that I pursue music. I rented out my father's musical equipment and earned some money. As a child, I wasn't sure about a career goal, but I was always fascinated by electronic gadgets, specially musical equipment.
There is always a certain leap of faith that editors have made with their nonfiction writers. If the trust is broken, things can get very embarrassing for the writers and the publisher.
I'm not very interested in myself. I do have a deep moral belief that you should always look out at other things and not be self-centred.
I like feeling my way into different minds and experiences. It comes naturally and always has.
I'm more interested in books than people, and I always expect everybody else to be, but they're not.
I don't understand why, in my work, writing is always so dangerous. It's very destructive. People who write books are destroyers.
On buses and trains, I always think about the inexhaustible variety of human genes. We see types, and occasionally twins, but never doubles. All faces are unique, and this is exhilarating, despite the increasingly plastic similarity of TV stars and actors.
My professional and human obsession is the nature of language, and my best relationships are with other writers. In many ways, I know George Eliot better than I know my husband.
