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

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

First-book novelists and storywriters haven't yet failed and so it's easier to publish them - you can gamble on a success. Whereas someone who has written four books that are highly literary and demanding and require you as a reader. They may not be republished.

What to know about pain is how little we do to deserve it, how simple it is to give, how hard to lose.

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