One Of The Things That Struck Me

The Interesting Thing About Something In The Back Of Your Mind Is That It Can Travel Pretty Far Back In Your Mind.

When You Are A Child, You Often Stare Too Closely At The Wrong Thing. I Remember The First Time I Was Taken To Yankee Stadium. Someone Had Spilled Something Sweet Earlier In The Day And The Ground Was Covered With Ants. I Spent The Whole Game Staring At The Ants, And That Was More Fascinating Than The Game.

So Where Does The Name Adam's Apple Come From? Most People Say That It Is From The Notion That This Bump Was Caused By The Forbidden Fruit Getting Stuck In The Throat Of Adam In The Garden Of Eden. There Is A Problem With This Theory Because Some Hebrew Scholars Believe That The Forbidden Fruit Was The Pomegranate. The Koran Claims That The Forbidden Fruit Was A Banana. So Take Your Pick---adam's Apple, Adam's Pomegranate, Adam's Banana. Eve Clearly Chewed Before Swallowing.

I Think People Got In Touch With Me Either Knowing My Work, Or Probably More Frequently Just Knowing A Plot Or Sort Of Buzz About Something I Did And Sort Of Saying, "get That Guy That Writes The Crazy Stuff In Here."

I Have An Enduring, Very Robust Infatuation With Dictators. I Have An Infatuation With Stalin, Mao, And Mussolini. In The Paris Review Interview I Did (in 2013), I Said My Next Book, This One, Was Going To Be About Mussolini. I Wound Up Only Having A Mussolini Cameo In The Book.