The extreme geniality of San Francisco's economic, intellectual and political climate makes it the most varied and challenging city in the United States.

You write that first draft really to see how it's going to come out.

I was a Navy officer writing about Navy problems and I simply stole this lovely Army nurse and popped her into a Navy uniform, where she has done very well for herself.

Writers turn dreams into print.

I am always interested in why young people become writers, and from talking with many I have concluded that most do not want to be writers working eight and ten hours a day and accomplishing little; they want to have been writers, garnering the rewards of having completed a best-seller. They aspire to the rewards of writing but not to the travail.

The extreme geniality of San Francisco's economic, intellectual and political climate makes it the most varied and challenging city in the United States.

I have only one bit of advice to beginning writers: be sure your novel is read by Rodgers and Hammerstein.