It is also one of the pleasures of oral biography, in that the reader, rather than editor, is jury.

The New York Times published the guest list on the front page. The masks were a brilliant concept.

At the base of it was the urge, if you wanted to play football, to knock someone down, that was what the sport was all about, the will to win closely linked with contact.

I have never been convinced there's anything inherently wrong in having fun.

Rick Bass is one of the best writers of his generation.

I remember being awed by it - the uniqueness and nicety of style - and I suspect I was a bit jealous because we were more or less of the same generation.

He still has the same way of calling to me, as if I'm still new to him, as if he has yet to get over me.