And, with much of Europe occupied by Nazi Germany, and Mussolini's armies in Albania, on the Greek frontier, one wasn't sure what came next. So, don't trust the telephone. Or the newspapers. Or the radio. Or tomorrow.

Wherever God has planted you, you must know how to flower - translated from a French saying

I don't really write plots. I use history as the engine that drives everything.

Once you have your characters, they tell you what to write, you don't tell them.

Live today, for tomorrow we die.

I don't inflict horrors on readers.

I'm basically an Upper West Side Jewish writer.