I graduated in 1952 and went to Europe, with Niki and our first child Laura, who was then a year old.

After the navy, I transferred to Harvard and finished there. I was there the spring term of 1951 and I stayed through the summer term and a whole other year, so I was able to do two years in a little less than a year and a half.

I'd been brought up on the Upper East Side in a WASP society, which was death on crutches.

My dream, I remember, when I went to boarding school, was to have a study all my own, a little nook someplace where nobody could get at me - nobody, like the football coach.

I was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, for a while, about which the less said the better, and then I was in the Mediterranean, about which the more said the better.

Write about the things that attract you. Choose your subjects the way you used to choose your toys: out of desire.

I think situations are more important than plot and character.