I try to be accommodating, but I'm pretty much a loner.
I've also never written anything really in LA.
If I'm in LA, I'm close to home, and that just brings up all these other things, good and bad. There is a reason why I am not there .
I'm healthier in California, probably a little happier, maybe.
I forget how beautiful and calm California is. It's not so much about the place, but also the age that I came to the place and, well, other things. New York is hard.
I'm hugely honored [with the Man Booker Prize].
I'm very fortunate. I'm not much of a self-promoter or anything.
I just rode cross-country and the thing I noticed is just how afraid everyone is, and how nervous and scared and angry people are. From my point of view, I don't think it's all necessarily justified, but I think that's easy for me to say.
Sometimes I would get frustrated, I'd think, "You know, this is a good book, how come no one is paying attention to it?" So it's nice to have some recognition.
There are things I don't like, like sitting at the head of the class. It makes me uncomfortable. I'll do it in a seminar if I have to, but with a workshop, I try to put myself in the circle somewhere. Because that hopefully frees up some people by making somebody else sit at the nominal head of the table.
I'm doing all these interviews with the British press, the Italian press, and others. They all want to talk about this stuff. I don't have a stance; I don't have a go-to thing to say about any of this.
If all the students who slept through lectures were laid end to end, they'd all be a lot more comfortable. If all the world's a stage, I want to operate the trap door.
I don't know exactly what a black Chinese restaurant would be, but I would sure love to see one.
