I got a degree in sociology, didn't read much fiction in college, and I was a pretty political, left-wing type of guy. I wanted to do some kind of work in social change and make things better for the poor man, and I was very romantic and passionate about it.

I think the writer's job is to paint the gray because no life is clearly defined.

Somewhere, sometime I'd stopped expecting my father to father.

Even a day writing badly for me is 10 times better than a day where I don’t write at all.

My mother was making $135 a week, but she had resilience and imagination. She might take frozen vegetables, cook them with garlic, onion and Spam, and it would taste like a four-star dinner.

As a matter of writing philosophy, if there is one, I try not to ever plot a story. I try to write it from the character's point of view and see where it goes.

It is not hard to live through a day, if you can live through a moment.