Every novelist has a different purpose-and often several purposes which might even be contradictory.

I'm not as hopeful as I was when I was young

You have to expect the raps when you have achieved popularity as a writer

Posterity makes the judgments. There are going to be a lot of surprises in store for everybody.

I've gone on the wagon, but my body doesn't believe it.

In a novel, it's hard to keep track of everybody

I never drink while I'm working, but after a few glasses I get ideas that would never have occurred to me dead sober.