Having to struggle gave me the chance to demonstrate strength of character.

I regarded drugs as somewhat like rattlesnakes - it's possible to pick one up without getting bit, but why bother?

No matter what I do, no matter how predictable I try to make my life, it will not be any more predictable than the rest of the world. Which is chaotic.

In a novel, I could submerge my ego in a characters and let his perceptions take over.

There is simple ignorance, not knowing, and willful ignorance that refuses to know, that covers the light of knowledge with the dark blanket of bias.

Other people, including me, have written books with main characters who were old and rich. Or old and brilliant. Old sages, old wizards, old rich people.

One thing nobody can do better than you is be you.