To weigh and evaluate a vast grid of information, much of it meaningless, and to arrive at sensible, if erroneous, conclusions, is a skill not to be sneezed at.

HBO is really famous for hiring good people and staying out of their way until they ask for help, or need it. And that reputation is earned.

I get and read an enormous number of first novels.

I have to have a character worth caring about. I tend not to start writing books about people I don't have a lot of sympathy for because I'm just going to be with them too long.

People who imagine themselves to be self-made seldom enjoy examining the process of manufacture in detail.

I looked back at some of my earlier published stories with genuine horror and remorse. I got thinking, How many extant copies might there be, who owns them, and do they keep their doors locked?

If there's an enduring theme in my work, it's probably the effects of class on American life.