I wrote a novel called "Blonde," which is about Norma Jean Baker, who becomes Marilyn Monroe, which I called a fictitious biography. That uses the material as if it were myth - that Marilyn Monroe is like this mythical figure in our culture.

Not even the most devastating truth can be told; it must be evoked.

The denial of language is a suicidal one and we pay for it with our own lives.

I have beliefs, of course, like everyone-but I don't always believe in them.

Boxing is a celebration of the lost religion of masculinity all the more trenchant for its being lost.

I don't read for amusement, I read for enlightenment. I do a lot of reviewing, so I have a steady assignment of reading. I'm also a judge for the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, which gives awards to literature and nonfiction.

Be your own editor/critic. Sympathetic but merciless!