British writer David Quantick has done it all. In addition to his long bibliography, Quantick has written for television and radio throughout the English-speaking world. He got his start writing rock journalism and submitting jokes to the legendary British political satire Spitting Image. In 2015, Quantick won an Emmy Award for his work on the hit HBO series Veep.

In his new novel, All My Colors, Quantick introduces readers to a book author without a moral compass. While facing the consequences of bad behavior, he is overpowered by an otherworldly muse. Is this new novel intruding from the great beyond? Or is our fictional author just a delusional jerk?

Quantick seems to relish punishing his author-protagonist, Todd. All My Colors is a runaway train of horror, satire, and moral suspense. Only at the end will readers find out if Todd’s many demons get their final revenge.

Perhaps the central mystery of All My Colors is where the fictional author gets his inspiration. What triggered your thinking about this story?

I was trying to remember a story I’d liked when I was a teenager. It was a creepy story about a world where nightmares are the reality and what we think is “real” is only the brief time we sleep. I could not find this story anywhere. I still can’t. I was so obsessed with it that I thought about writing it myself from memory. And then the idea for All My Colors came to me: a writer remembers a book that nobody else has heard of and, when he needs money, writes it.

All My Colors resists categorization. What do you hope the reader’s experience will be?

I hope it makes people scared, and even feel a bit sick and revolted at times. And I hope they feel the sheer rollercoaster joy I had writing about someone whose life is turned to manure by one bad decision.

You won an Emmy for writing an episode of Veep. This book also mixes satire with horror - albeit a different kind of horror. Why do these two seemingly opposing styles work so well together?

Comedy and horror go together so well. Two of my favorite writers – Stephen King and Neil Gaiman – are brilliantly scary and brilliantly funny. It’s partly because a lot of horror situations are absurd. And on the other side of the coin, a lot of comic situations would be horrible if they happened to you. That’s why the Scream movies worked so well and why zombie films are so silly and so frightening. Comedy and horror are great ways to look at life and see how ridiculous it really is.

What are the pleasures and perils of writing a novel?

Writing a novel is like running a marathon with a bag over your head. You know it’s going to take a long time. But you can’t really see where you’re going and you might fall into a ravine at any minute. It’s great to be your own boss – and not have a committee telling you what to write before you’ve even sat down – but you can’t know if your book is any good until you’ve written it

Your book is set in Dekalb, Illinois in the 1970s. What can you tell us about your choice of setting?

In a previous life, I spent a lot of time visiting my in-laws in Illinois. It’s a part of America that I really came to love. Most Brits only see New York and Los Angeles. So, to be away from the coastal cities – seeing those miles of fields punctuated by barns, water towers, churches, and strip malls – was a real eye-opener for me. Americans are great people, warm and friendly and with a great sense of humor. It was a real privilege to be there.

I was delighted to see the author stand up for himself during his television appearance. As a writer, how are you affected by the current culture wars?

We live at a time where you get away with doing all kind of things. But it’s less easy to say things. The internet is a kind of deranged arena. Everyone’s a judge and the opinion of someone who’s lost their mind is as valid as anyone else’s. It’s like the Wild West, except everyone is on hallucinogens.

As for public speech, I’ve always thought you should be able to say what you want about other adults as long as you understand that words have consequences. Freedom of speech means freedom of reply, which often means confused debate and incoherent shouting.

You worked on biographies of Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor. How would they be received by today’s comedy audiences?

We live at a time when stand-up comics – largely thanks to geniuses like Bruce and Pryor – are no longer expected to be quickfire gag machines. The best stand-ups offer views that make us laugh but also make us feel a bit uncomfortable. I think both those men would be upsetting people for good and bad reasons and making us think when we don’t want to.

What is the difference between British and American humor? Are you conscious of this when you write American characters?

People always say British humor is sophisticated and ironic, but we gave the world Benny Hill, Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy. American comedy is astonishing. America invented the sitcom, the screwball comedy, Loony Tunes animation, and modern stand-up. I could fill a library with a list of great American comedy.

Humor might not be universal, but it’s pretty close. Great comics can come from anywhere. We all find other people’s pain and suffering hilarious, after all.