There Was Too Much Going On Here

Growing Up, I'd Already Decided I Wanted To Be A Beatnik. A Bohemian Poet, I Thought. Or A Musician. Maybe An Artist. I'd Dress In Black Turtlenecks And Smoke Gitanes. I'd Listen To Cool Jazz In Clubs, Getting Up To Read Devastating Truths From My Notebook, Leaning Against The Microphone, Cigarette Dangling From My Hand.

I Think You're All Mad. But That's Part And Parcel Of Being An Artistic Genius, Isn't It?

I'd Say That Any Character Or Setting Can Be Given A Bit Of An Otherworldly Sheen And Be The Better For It. The One Thing I Insist On With My Own Writing Is That I Won't Let Magic Solve My Characters' Real World Problems. The Solutions Have To Come From The Characters Themselves.

A Long Time Ago A Bunch Of People Reached A General Consensus As To What's Real And What's Not And Most Of Us Have Been Going Along With It Ever Since.

Most Children Are Given Far Too Much Praise For Their Early Drawings, So Much So That They Rarely Learn The Ability To Refine Their First Crude Efforts The Way Their Early Attempts At Language Are Corrected.