My first novel, 'John Crow's Devil,' freed me up to write about the past, and 'The Book of Night Women' freed me up to have a book totally based on voice and being very spontaneous.

What I find, particularly with young writers and readers, is that they don't want complicated feelings.

We shouldn't romanticize rejection. There's nothing romantic about rejection. It's horrible.

The Daily Mail' interviewed my friends in Jamaica to find out if I was ever the victim of a vicious homophobic attack because, to them, I'm a gay refugee. But nothing like that happened. So, no surprise, that story didn't appear. I'm really pretty boring.

The first neurologist I saw just thought I was partying too much, and he stuck by that claim even after my family insisted that he was wrong.

Family relationships are just so fascinating - how they shape you as a person, how you can wound each other, how you're imprinted in a way by your family and the conditions under which you grow up.

Number one is my faith, number two my family, number three is my friends, and number four, my fans.

My father is not that comfortable with children, but he's a terrific father for an adult.