In fact, I think every book I've written has been inspired by a real event.

I adore the work of Stephen Sondheim. I like musicales in general. They make surprisingly great running tapes.

I'm at the age most people are sending their kids off to college.

I had ancestors who were slave-holders, which is a difficult piece of family history to say the least. In a recent New York Times article on the subject of modern attitudes toward our slave-holding past, the writer noted that we all want to be from "innocent origins." I _know_ I'm not. Then again, I suspect most of us are not.

It must be nice to be so strong and to think it's because you're so good, that you live right and eat right, so you deserve your health and happiness. But there is such a thing as luck, and there's more bad luck than good in this world.

stinginess seemed instinctive to him. Darwinian even. He hadn't gotten to his current size by sharing.

In fact, I think every book I've written has been inspired by a real event.