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.

The best defense is a good story.

You have to read history. You have to have a sense of history.

If there is some blood on the pages then you have some readership.

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

It's harder to get hold of the world. It's harder to understand the world, to encompass the literature necessary for the information.

It's hard to read real fiction. It takes time. It takes a sustained attention.