I was reading for understanding. I wanted to do to a reader what Salinger did for me.

I was always writing. I just didn't know if I was any good.

Pleasure is, after all, a luxury. It's love that's essential.

I used to believe that love and happiness were synonymous. I was a fool. Love intensifies all emotions. Nothing is so painful o so sweet, so thrilling or so desperate... Pleasure is, after all, a luxury. It's love thats essential. You are never so alive as when you love, never so alert, intuitive, attentive, never so smart or so compassionate.

I had begun what I thought might be a career in social work. I was married and deeply involved in the anti-war movement. I thought I'd go about saving the world one person at a time. I worked with kids, teenagers mostly, in neighborhood centers, on the streets, and eventually in a drop-in center.

Reading is also a creative activity if you're doing it right. You can learn more from a story that's left the tracks than from a successful story.

The facts, however, are unimportant in fiction. It's not the events of my life that I mine, but the emotional experiences I've had.