I read a lot of poetry. I read some history.

When you are writing a character, what the character says is obviously crucial. But what the character doesn't say is absolutely as important as his words.

I enjoy going to campuses and reading and doing a class or teaching and then running away and not having to grade papers.

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

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

I'm not a philosopher. I am the next thing to a jock, which is a novelist.

I always had good students.