I turn down invitations to do things for money. I have almost no interest in making money. Actually, I've acquired a fair amount of money that I will never live to spend. So earning money, in a way, depresses me, because I feel it's just piling up.

You need so much energy and encouragement to write that if someone says something negative, some of that energy goes.

As soon as I moved to Princeton in 1978, I became fascinated by local history, much of it Revolutionary War-era; and I became fascinated by the presidency of Woodrow Wilson at Princeton University.

Before I undertake a lengthy project, I have usually given much thought to it over a period of years. My files are filled with likely subjects - which perhaps, one day, I will develop.

The folly of war is that it can have no natural end except in the extinction an entire people.

I could EAT YOUR HEART & asshole you'd never know it.

Much of my writing is energized by unresolved memories - something like ghosts in the psychological sense.