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

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

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.

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

Nonfiction, for the most part, is facts, and it's "how I was mistreated. I was mistreated. Were you mistreated? Weren't we all mistreated?"

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.

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