The best and easiest lesson for me was to learn that writing is mostly hard work.

I didn't actually figure out how to get guidance, so I just decided to go to school at University of Southern California because they sent me a glossy brochure.

I'm of the people in the bar and the people in my stories. They are my tribe.

Drugs and drinking affect every family I know, country and city, middle-class and poor.

After a year, it was great to get out of L.A. and return to Hyde Park. Since my grandparents lived in Hyde Park, I had been coming there since I was a tyke.

Donkeys are the most misunderstood and abused animals around the world.

I figure that I'm always going to be fine, one way or another, but I do worry about other people who have difficulty moving from one world to the next. It's the folks who are truly invested in their lives who have the hardest time with change.