Critics should find meaningful work.

And they drank heavily, partied with great enthusiasm, and relished the drug culture; they moved in and out and slept around, and this was okay because they defined their own morality. They were fighting for the Mexicans and the redwoods, dammit! They had to be good people!

It's as if we spend our entire lives avoiding Jell-O but it is always there at the end, waiting.

There is no devious and dangerous life. I've lived a charmed life, especially in the last thirty years since I've started publishing. I've won the lottery. And I keep winning it every year and I am so fortunate to do something I thoroughly enjoy and still enjoy after a bunch of books.

judge not that ye be not judged

Writing was not a childhood dream of mine. I do not recall longing to write as a student. I wasn't sure how to start.

I'm a Christian, and those beliefs occasionally come out in the books.