I'm standing up thinking. Anybody who wants to listen is welcome. If not, I'm happy to see them go.

I've always had a strong feeling for the Statue of Liberty, because it became the statue of my personal liberty.

It's hard being a hostage in somebody else's mouth - or a character in somebody else's novel.

I can manage a prose format as long as I keep closer to Laurence Sterne than to Henry James.

Stories are different every time you tell them - they allow so many possible narratives.

My mother turned into a professional widow. She couldnt understand why I wanted to be an engineer; she thought I should be a chicken farmer.

I had no idea where these kids at a small private college in the San Fernando Valley were coming from, why they were coming to hear me, or what they needed to know.