I always had good students.

The best defense is a good story.

The education of young people is narrowing. They cannot have the scope they used to have. They are being taught in high school by people earnest, still, but maybe less well-prepared than we would want them to be - but not because they are stupid or churlish.

If a writer is honest, if what is at stake for him can seem to matter to his readers, then his work may be read. But a writer will work anyway, as I do, and as I have, in part to explore this terra incognita, this dangerous ground I seem to need to risk.

I'm an amateur, so I read what's interesting to me.

I always want to read Gore Vidal's nonfiction. Because everything he writes is an essay and it's worth reading.

What I try to do is read stuff that won't deal with the dangerous dark things I hope I am writing about.