Like most of the educated, I do harbor a fondness for the sins of my ignorant past.

I was asked by an editor to consider writing something about an American inventor. I asked him if he knew who invented the computer. He said he didn't. In that case, I told him, I should write a book about John Vincent Atanasoff.

My characters never die screaming in rage. They attempt to pull themselves back together and go on. And that's basically a conservative view of life.

Like most of the educated, I do harbor a fondness for the sins of my ignorant past.

Art doesn't exist if you just do what you're told. It only exists as an exercise of individual taste and freedom.

Novelists never have to footnote.

Mom was a smoker. My grandfather was a smoker. My aunts were smokers. My uncles were smokers. I don't know any smokers now, not even my mom.