I do lots of reading and speaking at many universities about literature and also about politics, which is as much a part of my life as the literature.

I've started many novels, and they all ended on page seven.

I might write four lines or I might write twenty. I subtract and I add until I really hit something I want to do. You don't always whittle down, sometimes you whittle up.

The wrong word is like a lie jammed inside the story.

I begin by writing paragraphs that don’t have an immediate relation to a plot. The sound of the story comes first.

My mother went to demonstrations. I remember her going to a big demonstration for Earl Brower and she came home crying and said the Communists were very mean and booed their people. I remember feeling sad at her feeling sad.

The word career is a divisive word. It's a word that divides the normal life from business or professional life.