I Was A Teen Star.

It's Something We, Guys, Have All Done. Made Tapes For Girls, Trying To Impress Them, To Meet Them On A Shared Plane Of Aesthetics. Read Them Someone Else's Poetry Because They Do Poetry Better Than You Could Do It, Because You're Too Awkward To Do It.

Being On A Movie Set Is Like One Long Financial Crisis.

There's Also Some Element Of Coming Of Age During The Reagan Administration, Which Everybody Has Painted As Some Glorious Time In America, But I Remember As Being A Very, Very Dark Time. There Was Apocalypse In The Air; The Punk Rock Movement Made Sense.

The Sugar Frosted Nutsack Is Dizzyingly Brilliant. Mark Leyner Is A Hyperkinetic Shaman, Who Flies The Banner Of Rum And Candy And Writes Like A One-eyed Feral Bandit. His New Book Is Supremely Original, Delirious And Synapse-shattering.

Roy, The Guy I Play In 'the Grifters,' Is A Guy Who Had A Very Bleak Life. His Mother Had Him At 13, And Then When She Was 17 Or 18 And He Was 4 Or 5, They Were Trapped In A Small Texas Town Somewhere, And She Was Ready To Do Anything To Get Out.