To shift the structure of a sentence alters the meaning of that sentence, as definitely and inflexibly as the position of a camera alters the meaning of the object photographed.

It's just a deep pleasure to read something you've written yourself - if and when you like it.

People tend to forget that my presence runs counter to their best interests. And it always does. That is one last thing to remember. Writers are always selling somebody out.

Why do you always have to be right. Why do you always have to have the last word. For once in your life just let it go.

Lancaster, California ... that promised land sometimes called 'the west coast of Iowa.

I lead a very conventional life.

I myself love to read those Victorian novels which go on and on, and you don't read them in one sitting. You might read one over the course of a summer, but that isn't what I want to write.