At the height of the McCarthy period, writers were being hounded.

Writing is like a contact sport, like football. Why do kids play football? They can get hurt on any play, can't they? Yet they can't wait until Saturday comes around so they can play on the high school team, or the college team, and get smashed around. Writing is like that. You can get hurt, but you enjoy it!

No writer need feel sorry for himself if he writes and enjoys it, even if he doesn't get paid.

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

I am forced to say that I have many fiercer critics than myself.

Isaac Singer was born in Poland and doesn't write in English. Still, he's an American.

Kennedy was a man who liked writers and even I got invited to the White House