“Everything in Venice is just a little bit creepy, as much as it's beautiful.”
“For me, 'Lamb' started out as a further exploration of the phenomenon of faith and the responsibility of a messiah that I touched on in 'Coyote Blue' and 'Island of the Sequined Love Nun,' but it ended up being an exploration of the true meaning of sacrifice, loyalty, and friendship.”
“I've made a dog's breakfast of English history, geography, 'King Lear,' and the English language in general.”
“Like most people, I woke up one day to find that everyone I knew was taking antidepressants, and since I wasn't, I figured that I must be the cause of their depression.”
“I really don't think of my work in terms of a genre. I think of it in terms of what I want to say, what I think is cool, and what I'm good at.”
“I'm not afraid of getting into a subject I don't know much about.”
“I'm not nearly as outrageously brave as many of my rascals that I write. But I think the rascal spirit must reside in me somewhere.”
“When I teach seminars, I tell people, 'Your stuff has to look like something that's out there, because otherwise nobody will take a chance on you.'”
“You can't teach someone to be funny, but you can teach comic timing. If you listen to a good comic, you can learn how to put it on a page.”
“San Francisco is a breathtakingly beautiful city, with lots of great contrasts between dark and light, often overlapping each other. It's a great setting for a horror story.”