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I don't like condo life.

In a ghost story, usually you've got to hang on until daylight, and you'll be alright. But if daylight's four months away, then you have a problem.

I'm in my apartment in trendy Tribeca. I've been down here for 37 years, from before it was a fashionable neighbourhood. It's a wonderful place; it looks over the Hudson River. I can see 30 miles into New Jersey. My landlord would like me to die because the rent is very low. I'm trying to outlive him. He can get a lot more if I disappear.

There's this thing of you can live in a city and be completely alone, not notice anything going on around you.

Every day without fail one should consider himself as dead. There is a saying of the elders that goes, 'Step from under the eaves and you're a dead man. Leave the gate and the enemy is waiting.' This is not a matter of being careful. It is to consider oneself as dead beforehand.

I mean some doctor told me I had six months to live and I went to their funeral.

I lived for nearly seven years with the awareness that death was my everyday companion.

For a while, I didn't want to leave the house. Eventually, I just got sick of being indoors. Now I take steps not to be noticed when I don't want to be. For instance, I live near Westfield shopping centre, so I won't go there at the weekend.