Humor can be an incredible, lacerating and effective weapon.

My books are character-driven. They're not driven by the story.

Disney's something to be a little alarmed about. It's not just a little theme park anymore. It's now an ethic and outlook and strategy that goes way beyond central Florida.

I think in the old days, the nexus of weirdness ran through Southern California, and to a degree New York City. I think it's changed so that every bizarre story in the country now has a Florida connection. I don't know why, except it must be some inversion of magnetic poles or something.

I don't have an e-reader. One reason is that I like to dog-ear the page when I find a particularly good sentence or passage.

You can do the best research and be making the strongest intellectual argument, but if readers don't get past the third paragraph you've wasted your energy and valuable ink.

I've never progressed very far from my days as a smart aleck in middle school.