I would like immortality.

Were there stories I wrote along the way that were terrible clinkers? God, yes. But they were all a product of their time, and I did the best I could.

I hate the crazy, neurotic characters beyond a certain point.

There are very few of us, who reach my advanced age, who are still working in the business, as writers. As artists, people can hang out longer.

I'm a neurotic New York Jew by birth. Creating characters is second nature to me.

I think every time you take a female character, a black character, a Hispanic character, a gay character, and make that the point of the character, you are minimalizing the character.

Sometimes you're not even sure which of your stories were failures. There are things I've written that I thought were complete catastrophes when I finished with them that have gone on to generate some of my most positive feedback.