“On the whole, I try to avoid confrontations with deadly snakes.”

“On the flight back from Korea, somewhere between the silicone implant chicken and the latest Jennifer Lopez shitefest, I try to make sense of my Korean experience.”

“At this point, I see the unfortunate recipient of this impromptu history lecture begin to doze and I move on to my next unwilling victim.”

“I'd seen more menace in a Care Bear.”

“Each Whining Thing (1929)When stripèd snakes shall creep upon usAnd the nervous screams of birdsMake silent all the fountains and the orchards and when theseHave caught upon the wing each wingThat flutters from the skyThen shall I and then shall IRip out the smiles from garden walksTransform the minnows into hawksTarantulas and beesThen shall I and then shall IUnmake each whining thing.”

“I've always wanted to get as far as possible from the place where I was born. Far both geographically and spiritually. To leave it behind ... I feel that life is very short and the world is there to see and one should know as much about it as possible. One belongs to the whole world, not just one part of it.”

“When people say that this kind of fantasy fiction is escapist and evading the real world, well I think that’s an evasion. It’s actually trying to confront something that most people would rather not confront.”