I know I've done good work. I've been very serious about my writing, and I've done the best that I could. But I don't feel that I've done more than I should have. In fact, I've done less than I should have.

Sometimes you find that what is most personal is also what connects you most strongly with others.

I write for the still, small possibility of justice.

Good talkers are people who use interesting language and have a lot of energy in speech and who also listen.

I should have written more. I should have written more during the period when I just liked so much doing the political work in the streets.

A lot of sad things have happened to my friends' children, people you knew as babies. They've been killed or become crazy or all kinds of tragic things. There are some people whose children haven't talked to them in fifteen years. There's all kind of meshugaas in this world.

But what's a writer for? The whole point is to put yourself into other lives, other heads-writers have always done that. If you screw up, so someone will tell you, that's all.