Your first duty as a writer is to write to please yourself. And you have no duty towards anyone else.

For some reason, I seem to be bothered whenever I see acts of injustice and assaults on people's civil liberties. I imagine what I write in the future will follow in that vein. Whether it's fiction or non-fiction.

Please believe in THE POWER OF ONE. One person can make an enormous difference in the world. One person - actually, one idea - can start a war, or end one, or subvert an entire power structure. One discovery can cure a disease or spawn new technology to benefit or annihilate the human race. You as ONE individual can change millions of lives. Think big. Do not limit your vision and do not ever compromise your dreams or ideals.

Somebody who was born in this country who visited China would later face difficulty getting back in to the USA. We have to keep in mind that the struggles of the Chinese against these exclusion laws really laid down the foundations of civil rights law.

There isn't much discussion of ruling class in America even in Boston, probably one of the most class-conscious cities in the country?

When you believe you have a future, you think in terms of generations and years. When you do not, you live not just by the day — but by the minute.

Books are the ultimate way for writers to reach immortality.