It troubles me that people speak about writing for money as ugly and distasteful.

More than any other setting - more than battlefields or boardrooms or a spaceship headed for intergalactic travel - I'll put my money on the family to provide an endless source of comedy, tragedy and intrigue.

If I told you about all the stories I don't tell, I would be violating the very boundaries I set for myself.

Long after Salinger sent me away, I continued to believe his standards and expectations were the best ones.

I do not outline. There are writers I know and count as my friends who certainly do it the other way but for me part of the adventure is not knowing how it's going to turn out.

For 25 years, I did take my responsibilities as a pleaser of others sufficiently seriously.

The portrait of my parents is a complicated one, but lovingly drawn.