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

We are herding the young in that direction so that they are not sitting still and contemplating, Goddamn it, a page of exquisite prose by Charles Dickens, which is filled with rage about poverty and the need of a household to survive. That's not in the table for consideration now. And people don't understand that beautiful rage of Dickens because they don't share it. They haven't got time to worry about an oppressed culture, a subclass.

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.

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

There is a lack of context in contemporary education. And contemporary consideration - because we live in those interiorities so much. Especially young kids who live by surfing the Web.

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

When I am writing a novel I try not to read great prose stylists into which I will fall.