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The compulsively readable events of my life occurred mainly in infancy, and it's been pretty humdrum ever since.

The subject of an outsider who becomes obsessed.

Obsession led me to write. It's been that way with every book I've ever written. I become completely consumed by a theme, by characters, by a desire to meet a challenge.

From a young age I was obsessed with the mysterious, the esoteric, the paranormal.

I'm not quite sure when I began to be troubled by the creeping sense of my own ludicrousness, but it persisted - and eventually grew into a fascination. I started writing about it. Thus, in His characteristically mysterious way, the Lord made clear His plans for me.

A lot of what I'm obsessed with is the relationship and the dynamics between people and the family, particularly brothers and their father.

My three obsessions are mental illness, horror and religion.

Writing on assignment, with lots of money handed to you before you even began, got very scary for me. My dread of not being perfect, something I got from a childhood surrounded by powerful, successful people, began to infect everything I wrote.

I have any number of completely dark obsessions and fascinations, and none of this was present in my profile or my growing profile as a writer.

All of the things I used to obsess over, I'm no longer as obsessed with. I have new concerns but they're a little more existential or cosmic.