Somewhere along the way America became a giant mall with a country attached.

Somewhere along the way America became a giant mall with a country attached.

The funny thing is, about the time I let go of any aspiration toward worldly success, that's about the time I started writing decent work.

I thought when I started writing that I'd have a book out in four or five years, and as it became apparent that that wasn't going to happen, I became increasingly frustrated and unsure of myself.

By the end of the first decade of writing, I considered myself a confirmed failure in the eyes of the world.

If you want to write, then write; if you don't want to write, then don't write. I fell into the former category, and I just made the decision that I'd keep on because I liked it and might someday do something decent.

I started publishing stories in small magazines early on, but after seven or eight or nine years you feel like you need a little more than that to show for your efforts.