The folly of human desire is a central theme of all the author's stories. Most of his characters suffer awful fates as a result of their own foolishness, which usually takes the form of greed, desire or vanity. As such, we could posit the author as a "Commentator on the Absurdity of Desire". His quirky imagination, his ability to construct new and striking realities, threaded with a dark-edged, menacing humour, make him a truly unique literary voice. He cites his influences as Darwin, Freud and the Marx Brothers, which in turn lead to a mixture of pathos, psychological insight and slapstick in his writing, shot through with Kafka-esque inventiveness.