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

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

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 have a wonderful editor who believes in fiction and poetry. She herself is a novelist and poet.

The best defense is a good story.

History is beautiful stories or scary stories, yeah.

People do not read, by and large. They watch television.