I write with as much objectivity as I can.

I write to try to find out who I am. One of my main themes is manliness. I think I'm trying to figure out what manliness really is.

We looked at each other, and I could see in those big reddened eyes that he was not going to scream. He was full of anger - and who could blame him? - but he was no fool. He needed me, and he wanted me here, if only to insult me.

You've got to bend with the wind or you're broken.

I had to see and feel and be with the thing that I wanted to write about.

I knew I wanted to be a writer and I knew if I had a wife and family, I would neglect something, and I was afraid it wouldn't be the writing.

And that's all we are Jefferson, all of us on this earth, a piece of drifting wood. until we - each of us, individually- decide to become something else. I am still that piece of drifting wood, and those out there are no better. But you can be better.