When you are sixteen you do not know what your parents know, or much of what they understand, and less of what's in their hearts. This can save you from becoming an adult too early, save your life from becoming only theirs lived over again--which is a loss. But to shield yourself--as I didn't do--seems to be an even greater error, since what's lost is the truth of your parents' life and what you should think about it, and beyond that, how you should estimate the world you are about to live in.

When I write a novel I start each morning by reading for 20 minutes.

Very early you come to the realization that nothing will ever take you away from yourself.

You can't always go to the well and have things be funny.

I've been mainly a happy boy in my life. I married the right girl and we did what we wanted to do.

What I know is, you have chance in life--of surviving it--if you tolerate loss well; manage not to be a cynic through it all; to subordinate, as Ruskin implied, to keep proportion, to connect the unequal things into a whole that preserves the good, even if admittedly good is often not simple to find.

I wouldn't be a very good writer if someone hadn't taught me how to read.