No one grows up thinking they want to be a ghostwriter. No one plans on that job.

I'm so used to being separate from the publication process. I turn in the book to the editor and then I'm done.

I think that the celebrity memoir as a genre is looked upon as a lesser form. One of my missions as a ghostwriter has been to elevate that form. Maybe that sounds pretentious!

I think one of the big things that's come out of ghostwriting for me is real compassion for the complexity of fame.

We exploit celebrities by caring about shallow things like whether they've gotten a facelift. And we violate their children constantly. But we also love them in a way.

Lizzie Pepper is pure fiction! The character is pulled from tabloids. But I think we all look at celebrity marriages and invest in them.

I think people dismiss celebrity memoirs as unreal, contrived and maybe partially made up. But that's definitely not true for anything that I write.

I'm handed a bunch of existing data. My job is to put that in the best narrative form. That is a puzzle I love to solve.

None of my clients are criminals, but to a much lighter degree that's what goes on. I hear the story, and I hear it with the level of detail that breeds empathy.

Working with somebody who has a more interesting life than I do - and getting to take on that life temporarily - is an endlessly interesting way to have the experience of writing memoir.

I've been writing books without ego for a very long time. I feel like it will get what it deserves. Or won't get what it doesn't deserve.

If you want to do something that really changes someone’s life, the best thing you can do is make the person you’re trying to help a participant in the process.

But this is your home''Not any longer, my poppet. Women make nests but men make bequests and scatter them. Heigh-ho!

You were lookin’ at me like you wanted to kiss me.”I force a laugh. “Yeah, right, ” I say sarcastically.“Nobody’s watchin’ if you want to, you know, try it. Not to brag, but I’m somewhat of an expert.

Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy - the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation.

Patience was not my strong point.

Life is a state of consciousness.

Under neoliberalism, culture appears to have largely abandoned its role as a site of critique.

I try to put my culture in all my music, as much as I can.

We forget ourselves and our destinies in health, and the chief use of temporary sickness is to remind us of these concerns.

If the automobile had followed the same development as the computer, a Rolls Royce would today cost $100 and get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year killing everyone inside.