It's better to not have a reputation than a bad one.

Art was always for me an escape and a way to relate to the world around me.

In the summer of 2010, I had decided to get into film and TV writing, so I wrote scripts for six different ideas I had developed, and the pilot for 'True Detective' was one of them.

Now you might picture your next story, your second one, but don’t be too definite, don’t make a vision you might cling to, or create an idea you lose yourself in. Don’t look at a map and ponder the depth of the Yellow Sea; don’t imagine the shapes of its waves. Don’t contemplate lost parents or lost girls. Resist the urge to explain their stories, because eventually you’ve got to understand that an answer isn’t the same thing as a solution, and a story is sometimes only an excuse.

I was worried I’d live forever.

For both of us the landscape had a gravity that tugged us backward in time, possessed us with people we used to be.

She was weak, a clever woman who willed herself stupid.

The work is where I tend to feel pressure – not so much in the reaction to it.

If I give her the truth, then maybe I am released of its obligations. I can pass the truth to its rightful owner, and the frozen stars in my chest might finally ignite.

Back then it felt like life was not just one thing; it could be other things. Then one day it felt like the exact opposite; life was one thing and one thing only, a wait.