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.

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 I try to do is read stuff that won't deal with the dangerous dark things I hope I am writing about.

I love baseball. What I love about baseball is that you are always waiting.

My heroes are people like Philip Levine, who is simply like a god to me, as a writer. And he is a very good man, too.

It's harder to get hold of the world. It's harder to understand the world, to encompass the literature necessary for the information.

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