Whether I’m critically well received, whether or not I sell books – of course it becomes progressively harder to get them published – nevertheless, it’s what I do, every day.

I don’t want my novel to be like Madame Bovary, finely crafted with the life edited out of it. I want my novel to be like a friend telling me a story – so we go off on thoughts; that’s the way it is.

I feel like I sort of missed the eighties. At the time, we didn’t know we were having fun, which is probably the way it always is.

As a writer, I don’t think it’s my responsibility to make a point. I just write and hope there’s someone who’ll like it.

Brownstein’s is a fresh and jaunty voice, with a jazz snap all his own.

Never Mind Nirvana is the first novel I’ve read that makes music as important as food, clothing romance – a fresh twist millions will be able to identify with – and the music of Lindquist’s language is a perfect match for the subject. I think he’s the writer to watch in the new millennium.

On bad days, I think I’d like to be a plastic surgeon who goes to Third World countries and operates on children in villages with airlifts, and then I think, ‘Yeah, right, I’m going to go back to undergraduate school and take all the biology I missed and then go to medical school.’ No. No.

With publicity comes humiliation.

I was like a social worker for lepers. My clients had a chunk of their body they wanted to give away; for a price I was there to receive it.

Brownstein's is a fresh and jaunty voice, with a jazz snap all his own.