I'm from a nice suburban middle-class family but my tattoos remind me where I've been.

What I want to do is tell stories about normal people in the American suburbs. I don't write the book where it's a conspiracy reaching the prime minister I don't write the book with the big serial killer who lops off heads. My setting is a very placid pool of suburbia family life. And within that I can make pretty big splashes.

'American Horror' is the debasement of the suburban family the way a lonely kid would have imagined it in the Seventies.

I hate these platforms that are all over the place today they are all about grabbing attention. They are suburban! I never do a platform. Well I did in the 1970s but that was a bad experience.

'American Horror' goes for a very specific kind of Seventies suburban downer ambience - 'Flowers in the Attic' paperbacks Black Sabbath album covers and late-night flicks like 'Let's Scare Jessica to Death.' It even has 'Go Ask Alice'-era urban legends.

I grew up in the suburbs and basically associate the suburbs with cultural death.

My dad worked two jobs and moved us to the suburbs and just being a black person I went through a lot of racism and being called names and being bullied every single day. And it was hard. I didn't have any friends.

The place of the father in the modern suburban family is a very small one particularly if he plays golf.

I was trying to break out of the suburbs and when I did break out I don't think I took my whole self with me - I think I played a role of being too cool and hip.

They're very uh you know I don't come from the suburbs and a jolly Disney type of lifestyle. I come from something totally different. And they're cool and bare minimum so it's not always a money issue for me.