For me, it was really a childhood dream coming true. It's sort of where the fantasy led reality, and then I got to be on the Starship Enterprise anyway. And the cool thing was - is I was the only person on this bridge who had actually been in space.
Well, in brief, I was discovered by a lady called Beth Boldt. She had also been a model. She used to take pictures of the girls she found, and she took a picture of me one day in my school uniform, and it all kind of started from there.
And whether you're an honest man, or whether you're a thief, depends on whose solicitor has given me my brief.
People don't want drama 365 days a year. I'm a sense of relief; it's my job to take your mind off what's bad for that brief second you're in the room with me, regardless of shape, race, colour or anything. It brings people together, and it makes me feel good about what I'm doing.
For me it's a remarkable thing that there is a prize celebrating and honouring and making for a brief moment short fiction the centre of the literary universe.
What fascinates me about addiction and obsessive behavior is that people would choose an altered state of consciousness that's toxic and ostensibly destroys most aspects of your normal life, because for a brief moment you feel okay.
Here we have been sitting down for a brief moment and you are already asking me if there are pictures of me in my drawers.
I have a little pocket Bible that I have with me all the time in my briefcase, and so usually in the mornings, sometimes on the campaign bus or plane, I always try to catch some time to do that regularly.
One of my first memories of being a kid was, 'I want to have a real job when I grow up.' And to me that meant you wear a suit and a hat and carry a briefcase and go to your job.
Me carrying a briefcase is like a hotdog wearing earrings.
I used to carry a briefcase instead of a school bag when going to school because I was shy and introverted then. But over the years, especially Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) helped me overcome these insecurities and scale greater heights.
I sent away to America for 'The Inside Secrets of Wrestling' that Percy Pringle and Dennis Brent wrote, and Volume 1 told me to keep kayfabe of the book. So I used to keep it in a briefcase, and I'd go to school every day, and everyone would talk about wrestling, and they didn't know what was going on, but I knew what was going on.
When I first experienced the millennial response to me, I had come out of a classified briefing, and I told the group of media individuals who were there that I didn't think James Comey had any credibility, and I threw up my hands and walked away - that went viral.
My college life was brief because I started working for my debut film when I was in eleventh standard. But I have no regrets, as I stayed in touch with my friends who keep briefing me about the drama in the college. The opportunity to get into showbiz was so exciting that I couldn't let it pass by.
Watching people like Brandon Graham, Erik Larsen, and Joe Keatinge produce stories for my characters was a revelation... Like, 'Why are you doing work for hire when others are working on characters you own?' 'Bloodstrike' and 'Brigade' is me re-focusing my focus!
I got a bright future ahead of me.
I don't see a bright future for Turkey. It pains me. But I have some hope, I pray for it to be better. It is a blessed country, a NATO member, and was an E.U. candidate. These were things we wanted.
But for me, it is when a student has died. I find the death of a young person the most difficult and painful of times. To explain it to other young people, to see a bright future snuffed out, is just awful. I am haunted by those deaths.
I think Millennials are more progressive, more socially progressive, much more concerned about economic issues that impact the poor and middle class, and so that basically shows me that the Democratic party will have a bright future.
My mother is looking forward to it even more than me! I'll be showing her the bright lights of New York.
