“A long time back, I used to listen to a song by Dennis Wilson. It was from 'Pacific Ocean Blue', the album he made after The Beach Boys fell apart. There was a line in it I loved: "loneliness is a very special place." As a teenager, sitting on my bed on autumn evenings, I used to imagine that place as a city, perhaps at dusk, when everyone turns homeward and the neon flickers to life. I recognized myself even then as one of its citizens and I liked how Wilson claimed it; how he made it sound fertile as well as frightening.”