Waves, sky, trees, Essrog - I was off the page now, away from the grammar of skyscrapers and pavement.

Writing is physical for me. I always have the sense that the words are coming out of my body, not just my mind.

It wasn't for children, seventh grade. You could read the stress of even entering the building in the postures of the teachers, the security guards. Nobody could relax in such a racial and hormonal disaster area.

I don't really ask of myself a given word or page count or number of hours. To work every day, that's my only fetish. And there is a physical quality to it when a novel is thriving.

As I get older I find that the friendships that are the most certain, ultimately, are the ones where you and the other person have made substantial amounts of money for one another.

I don't paint anymore. I haven't since I abandoned it at 19, in order to begin writing seriously.

As much as I care about historical context - I'm very eager to read a really great historical account.