I have a good poker face because I am half-dead inside.

I grew up reading the 'Village Voice' and wanting to be one of these multidisciplinary music writers, film writers, book writers. And I lucked out getting a job at the 'Voice' right after college.

I get invited to do panels with other Brooklyn writers to discuss what it's like to be a writer in Brooklyn. I expect it's like writing in Manhattan, but there aren't as many tourists walking very slowly in front of you when you step out for coffee. It's like writing in Paris, but there are fewer people speaking French.

I live in Brooklyn. I moved here 14 years ago for the cheap rent. It was a little embarrassing because I was raised in Manhattan, and so I was a bit of a snob about the other boroughs.

I was inspired to become a writer by horror movies and science fiction.

Early on my career, I figured out that I just have to write the book I have to write at that moment. Whatever else is going on in the culture is just not that important. If you could get the culture to write your book, that would be great. But the culture can't write your book.

I'm just trying to keep things rich for me creatively and for the readers who follow me.

Growing up devouring horror comics and novels, and being inspired to become a writer because of horror novels, movies, and comic books, I always knew I was going to write a horror novel.

Write what you know.

I'm someone who just likes being in my cave and thinking up weird stuff.

You can't rush inspiration.

My mom's mother was from Virginia, but I don't feel much of a tie. I'm very much anti-South for many, many reasons. Whenever I go down there, people are always looking at me funny, you know.

If you want to understand America, it's slavery.

Stephen King in general, as well as films of the apocalypse from the '70s, had a big influence on 'Zone One.'

Monsters are a storytelling tool, like domestic realism and close third.

I am not sure the issue of race in America will ever be completely solved.

A lot of my writer friends live near me, and that makes people think we just hang around with one another in cafes, trading work and discussing 'Harper's' and what not. But I rarely see them. We're home working.

Each book requires a different kind of treatment and structural gambit.

For me, choosing between fiction and nonfiction is really only about picking the right tool for the job.

Other people have hang-ups about what's literary or genre or whatever, and that's sort of not my problem. You're supposed to write what you have to write, and you're supposed to keep moving.

The contemporary casino is more than a gambling destination: it is a multifarious pleasure enclosure intended to satisfy every member of the family unit.

You can raze the old buildings and erect magnificent corporate towers, hose down Port Authority, but you can't change people.

I admire Vegas's purity, its entirely wholesome artificiality.

I take inspiration from books, movies, television, music - it all goes in the hopper. Depending on the project, I'm drawing from this or that piece of art that has stayed with me. Toni Morrison, George Romero, Sonic Youth - they are all in there.