Seem to be telling this, but really telling that. Three-dimensional writing, like three-dimensional chess. Nabokov was the other master of that. You could learn something from Nabokov on every page he ever wrote.

All of the changes in publishing since 1960 are significant. There are far fewer publishers.

I loved it, but social reality impeded. Now I wander in here at 9 in the morning or so, and come back for a while in the afternoon. I am a very lenient boss.

In the first batch of readers, back in the '60s and '70s, the criminal class was still literate, so I would get letters from people in prison; they thought that I was somebody whom they could shop-talk with, and they would tell me very funny stories. I got a lot of those. Guys who were going to wind up doing 10 to 15 for bank robbery, yes, were reading my books.

What did Jesus Christ say to the Teamsters? 'Do nothing till I get back.

In order to hold your faith intact be sure it's kept unsullied by fact.

If you think of movie studio executives, say, as society, then I root for the independent producers.