In 1957, I decided: write or perish.

In climbing, being first-rate is part of the whole enterprise. The important climbers want to be the first man up the mountain, the one who put up the first route. You're usually only remembered if you put up the first route on a very important climb. The route might even be named after you. That's a kind of glory.

Not necessarily narrow so much as impatient, intense.

In 1957, I decided: write or perish.

In general, American life is more easy-going. And civic pride, national pride in a cultural sense, is great in America. I think what they esteem in America is character and energy, and being different and superior to other peoples. Of course, every nation feels itself to be superior, but in America it's a jaunty feeling, and in some cases a rather ominous one among the super-patriots.

If you write enough, you begin to learn to do things. But in a way, you do start from zero each time.

I'd given up everything to be a writer, and if I didn't then go on to do that - to write - then I didn't know what would happen to me.