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.

If I miss anything, it's being able to hang out in the city of New York meeting people and talking to them on the corner.

Write what will stop your breath if you don’t write.

I didn't write any fiction until I was past thirty.

I don't have any degrees. I went to Hunter College one year and New York University another year. It's just on the basis of my books that I've been hired at any of the places I've been.

I'm really sorry for people growing up right now, because they have some cockeyed idea that they can get by with their eyes closed; the cane they're tapping is money, and that won't take them in the right direction.

I lived in a house in the East Bronx, a totally Jewish neighborhood on East 172nd Street. You didn't see Christians much, although one lived next door. We thought they were kind of a minority.