It's hard to leave New York: this is where my friends are, my parents are. It is so vital. The whole world seems to look to New York.

Then again, the name, the associations with a writer's name, can add to the reader's entertainment and pleasure.

Something has happened where you almost never grow up in America. Maybe it's the greater wealth.

One last thing on objectives - I like to make things, create things, so that's probably been the primary objective all along, even before the ego objective - to make. To record. But why record... that gets back to the ego, a little. Oh, well. Making is good. I like to make things.

Even when I was living below the poverty line as a novelist, I was still living better than 99.5% of the human population of the world. But in my little, soft realm of trying to amuse a few dozen middle-class people with my books and articles, I did struggle to survive in my own way.

Mostly I have to try to censor myself so as not to write things that will hurt other people, or that will go too far.

For me, books have always been a way to feel less alone while being alone.