You have to be eligible for luck to strike, and I think that's a matter of education and preparation, and character and all the other solid attributes that sometimes people laugh at.

Many people who want to be writers don't really want to be writers. They want to have been writers. They wish they had a book in print.

A group of two dozen nurses completely surrounded by 100,000 unattached American men.

It was the silent time before dawn, along the shores of what had been one of the most beautiful lakes in southern Africa.

If your book doesn't keep you up nights when you are writing it, it won't keep anyone up nights reading it.

I think the bottom line is that if you get through a childhood like mine, it's not at all bad. Obviously, you come out a pretty tough turkey, and you have had all the inoculations you need to keep you on a level keel for the rest of your life. The sad part is, most of us don't come out.

Contrary to what people think, I slave over my books.