“When I write, I make discoveries about my feelings.”

“I could write about how I feel when I sing, write and create something from heartbreak, sorrow, sadness or just simply nothingness. How nothingness can become the most beautiful, unexplainable feeling that makes you forget about gravity for an hour.”

“So, when I write a piece of fiction I select my characters and settings and so on because they have a bearing, at least to me, on the old unanswerable philosophical questions. And as I spin out the action, I’m always very concerned with springing discoveries -- actual philosophical discoveries. But at the same time I’m concerned -- and finally more concerned -- with what the discoveries do to the character who makes them, and to the people around him. It’s that that makes me not really a philosopher, but a novelist.”

“Writing is more about discovery than invention.”

“The best thing about my writing is that it makes me feel alive again. If I am going to be obsessed with self, at least self can give back a little.”

“I had a feeling of shame about my grief, as if I was making false amends for the bitterness I felt towards him when he was alive.”