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.

I love thrillers. I would even read certain science fiction, although I haven't been a devotee for many years.

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

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

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

The importance to the world of what we scribblers write is in doubt, I would think.