You Can't Tell People How To Feel

Plot Was Always Secondary In My Mind.

I'm Certainly Very Influenced By What You Would Call "contemporary Headline Horror," Stuff That Is True Crime Or For One Reason Or Another Catches Our Attention In The Media, Those Strange Cases That We End Up Obsessing About. I'm Always Influenced By Weird Anecdotes And News. And, You Know, Lastly, Probably Things That Have Happened To Me In My Own Life.

I Think That The Way That I Write Stories Is By Instinct. You Have Some Basic Ideas - A Character, Or An Image, Or A Situation That Sounds Compelling - And Then You Just Feel Your Way Around Until You Find The Edges Of Your Story. It's Like Going Into A Dark Room... You Stumble Around Until You Find The Walls And Then Inch Your Way To The Light Switch.

Sometimes He Thinks That If He Could Only Trace The Path Of His Life Carefully Enough, Everything Would Become Clear. The Ways That He Screwed Up Would Make Sense. He Closes His Eyes Tightly. His Life Wasn't Always A Mistake, He Thinks, And He Breathes Uncertainly For Awhile, Trying To Find A Pathway Into Unconsciousness, Into Sleep.

One Of The Things I Rarely Do Is Write About Sex.