If football players were armed with guns, there wouldn't be stadiums large enough to hold the crowds.

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

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!

I cringe when critics say I'm a master of the popular novel. What's an unpopular novel?

In the theater, characters have to cut the umbilical cord from the writer and talk in their own voices

Ernest Hemingway did a great deal toward making the writer an acceptable public figure; obviously, he was no sissy.

I haven't stuck to any formula. Most great writers stick to the same style, but I wanted to be more various