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.

At the heart of all good fiction and at the heart of all good gossip is the same thing: trouble.

As a writer you can and should expect to hear conflicting responses to your story.

It's easier to write about a place sometimes when you've left it, when you can apply your imagination to your memory and let your emotions guide the writing about a place.

I revise like crazy. I start revising before the pen hits the paper.

I write with a fountain pen. And then revise word by word and line by line so that the first draft of a scene is usually the tenth or so draft.

The landscape of childhood shapes us as it shapes the characters in our stories. You never forget the sacred places of your childhood.