The fiction is not autobiographical. Maybe to some extent it is, of course.

Most people just want to be part of the world, they want to live, love, and enjoy themselves - to take part in the world around them. Whereas artists are always retreating, locking the door, and inventing other worlds.

As Siri says, who is deeply involved with neuroscience, emotion consolidates memory, and I think that's true.

Money's important. Everyone cares about money. And when you don't have money, money becomes the overriding obsession of your life.

It became a habit of mine never to leave the house without a pencil in my pocket.

It's extremely difficult to get these jobs because you can't get a job on a ship unless you have seaman's paper's, and you can't get seaman's papers unless you have a job on a ship. There had to be a way to break through the circle, and he was the one who arranged it for me.

All through my writing life I've had this impulse to write autobiographical works.