It's One Of The Strangest Attributes Of

Doing A Life Study While Drunk And In The Process Of Being Seduced Is Never A Formula For Quality Art.

You've Probably Heard About The Theory Of Steam-engine Time - That Even After The Steam Engine Had Been Invented, It Had To Wait Until People Were Ready To Make Use Of It. The Same Thing Happens In Literary Circles. The Truth Is, I'm Not Terribly Interested In Victorian Times; I'm Interested In Victorian Writers. I'm Interested In Most Eras Of History, But Not The Victorian Era Especially. I Was Interested In The John Franklin Expedition. I Was Interested In These Last Five Weird Years Of Dickens' Life. And I Just Have To Take The Age That Comes With All That When I Write About It.

Nothing Helps An Artist's Career More Than A Little Death And Obscurity.

History Viewed From The Inside Is Always A Dark, Digestive Mess, Far Different From The Easily Recognizable Cow Viewed From Afar By Historians.

You Treat Violence As An Aberration ... When In Truth It Is The Norm. It Is The Very Essence Of The Human Condition.