Italics provide a wonderful advantage: you see, right away, that the words are in a rush. When something exists at a slant, you can't help but consider irony.

Nobody can assume that, to a writer, everything is off-limits.

You put a character out there and you're in their power. You're in trouble if they're in yours.

I must say also that it's never worked to my disadvantage that I have long, blond hair.

When I was teaching at Harvard in the 1970s, I went to Project Incorporated in Cambridge and took photography classes. I didn't even know how to aim the camera in those days.

Italics provide a wonderful advantage: you see, right away, that the words are in a rush. When something exists at a slant, you can't help but consider irony.

It's often been said that I'm an extremely depressing, cynical writer. I've never known what to make of that.