“The story you are about to read is a work of fiction. Nothing - and everything - about it is real.”

“Reading is important, because if you can read, you can learn anything about everything and everything about anything.”

“Read everything. Read fiction and non-fiction, read hot best sellers and the classics you never got around to in college.”

“General fiction is pretty much about ways that people get into problems and screw their lives up. Science fiction is about everything else.”

“Everything interesting takes place in the dark; there is no doubt about it. We know nothing of the true story of the men.”

“I'm known as a survivor now, I hope so, for the jail thing, bullets and everything, controversies and everything, I hope so. And I want to be in the future known as somebody. You know I want people to be talking about me like you know: "remember when he was real bad, remember when Tupac was real bad". You know what I mean, they do that about a lot of actors now, like John Travolta I read stories like "remember you were wild."”

“Fiction is about everything human and we are made out of dust, and if you scorn getting yourself dusty, then you shouldn't try to write fiction. It's not a grand enough job for you.”

“I'm about to start reading it again, because what good is a story you only want to read once?”

“Fiction, because it is not about somebody who actually lived in the real world, always has the possibility of being about oneself.”

“You never read about the real pain. It lives where no word can travel.”