The world is made of stairs, and there are those who go up and those who go down.

I began using pseudonyms early in my career, when I was being paid a quarter a cent a word for my work, and when I had to write a lot to earn a living. Sometimes I had three or four stories in a single magazine without the editor knowing they were all by me.

In conversations and visits with friends from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe I am often struck by the gaps in our Western theological approaches. The most common texts used in evangelical schools have been written in the US, UK, and Australia. However, they miss some fundamental contextual issues.

Palestinian believers have a unique experience with US foreign policy and our close ties with Israel. This alliance has many layers, but given the strong support of the US church, and the frequency of religious language surrounding these policies, Palestinian Christian friends raise important and challenging questions about how we understand the intertwining of theology and politics in the US.

I would like to win the Pulitzer Prize. I would like to win the Nobel Prize. I would like to win a Tony award for the Broadway musical I'm now working on. Aside from these, my aspirations are modest ones.

Its a matter of style. The Evan Hunter style and the Ed McBain style are very, very different.

Depending on what I'm working on, I come to the writing desk with entirely different mindsets. When I change form one to the other, it's as if another writer is on the scene.