“I’m a radio nerd. I’ve loved radio since I was a kid. I’m a huge Howard Stern fan.”

I have way too much going on, as usual, but fortunately it’s all good stuff. I’m not complaining.

The modern media environment is so overrun with bullshit and static and people trying to sell you stupid crap. It makes you want to bite yourself.

I usually work seven days a week and rarely take vacations, which is both lame and unsustainable. I don’t mind the idea of writing seven days a week, I suppose. Getting some work done early in the morning. But ideally I would love to take one day a week off.

I can think of plenty of writers whose work I revere and whose lives I know little about.

As a kid, I played my share of football in the street or in a vacant lot. When we were playing in the street, it was more touch football, so we didn’t hit each other into cars.

I hang out all the time with kids and young scouts and I never meet kids who don’t want adventure.

Survival is not about being fearless. It’s about making a decision, getting on and doing it, because I want to see my kids again, or whatever the reason might be.

Americans are cool, if you show just a chink of vulnerability, they respond so much. They’ll pat you on the arm and say, ‘Hey kid, you’re all right’. Brits will respond but they are much more cynical.

I hadn’t learned to read by third grade, which wasn’t unusual for some kids. I knew something was wrong because I couldn’t see or understand the words the way the other kids did. I wasn’t the least bit bothered – until I was sent back to the second-grade classroom for reading help after school.

The public is ready now for a safety net for the middle class, something not just for the poor, but for everyone who will need help, from time to time, in order to own a home, educate their kids, keep themselves healthy or have something to retire on.

I always had a really natural faith as a kid. Where I knew God existed and it felt very free and pretty wild and natural, and it wasn’t religious.

Kids can be a pain in the neck when they’re not a lump in your throat.