In terms of writing about horses, I fell backwards into that. I was intent on getting a Ph.D., becoming a professor, and writing on history but I got sick 14 years ago when I was 19. Getting sick derailed that plan completely

But with nonfiction, the task is very straightforward: Do the research, tell the story

I was 8 years old when I went across the street from my house to a fair, and they always had a used book sale. For a quarter I bought a book called 'Come On Seabiscuit.' I loved that book. It stayed with me all those years

I look at the film as an opportunity to see some bountifully creative minds do something that I could not do - tell the story with images. I can't wait to see what they do.

His books were the closest thing he had to furniture and he lived in them the way other men live in easy chairs.

Books on horse racing subjects have never done well, and I am told that publishers had come to think of them as the literary version of box office poison

I have to detach myself completely from aspirations. I hardly ever listen to music anymore because it arouses all of this yearning in me