I had let my digust with teaching ruin my love of literature.

Strangely, when I totally emerged from this slump I couldn't comprehend how I had almost drowned it it.

Birthdays are ghost bounty hunters that track you down to ask, "Que pasa, baby?

New Yorkers are mostly interested in New York - in case you haven't noticed.

I like grit, I like love and death, I'm tired of irony. ... A lot of good fiction is sentimental. ... The novelist who refuses sentiment refuses the full spectrum of human behavior, and then he just dries up. ... I would rather give full vent to all human loves and disappointments, and take a chance on being corny, than die a smartass.

After a lifetime of world travel I've been fascinated that those in the third world don't have the same perception of reality that we do.

I'm not rational enough to be a good journalist.