I was in television drama, which is a first cousin to the movies, and I trust myself to make the right decisions.

This was like July 13th, 1943, the pivotal day of the Battle of the Kursk. We were like Alexander Vasilevsky, the Soviet general. If we attacked now, this minute, we had to keep on and on attacking until the enemy was run off his feet and the war was won. If we bogged down or paused for breath even for a second, we would be overrun again.

So, how to stay inside the world of entertainment without actually getting another job? I felt the only logical answer was to become a novelist. So I wrote the first book - driven by some very real feelings of desperation - and it worked.

It's a kind of zen question: if you write a book and no one reads it, is it really a book?

I'm opposed to censorship of any kind, especially by government. But it's plain common sense that producers should target their product with some kind of sensitivity.

All of us write wish fulfillment.

My mother still calls me Jim and that is about it. Everyone else calls me Lee. My wife calls me whatever.