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

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.

I know important literary writers who can't get published.

Stephen King has the exact ability that Charles Dickens had. To get to his readers in spite of or despite anything the reviews say.

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

I'm an amateur, so I read what's interesting to me.

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