A lot of the fiction I read growing up was post-war American, and not all of it centers on Manhattan, but around people of the Mad Men generation, people like John Cheever and, in more modern times, Don DeLillo, who I always mention.

I did throw a lot of eggs into one basket, as you do in your teenage years - 'I am buying these records, I am wearing this'. I did quite a bit of that. You have to do it, wear your stupid shoes, wear your stupid hair.

You try various things when you're growing up. I was an attache in the Foreign Service for a while and then I drove a bulldozer, but neither of those panned out for me so it had to be stand-up.

One thing that's coming up a lot is: are you as grumpy as you appear from this Black Books thing.

It is essential that we stop worrying about money and stop resenting our bills.

I will get a loan and pay the money the court asks for. But I will not lay down my writing and I still say this was an important book to write.

Until you can be happy, you can't facilitate happiness for anybody else.

He who has made a fair compact with poverty is rich.