Family life was wonderful. The streets were bleak. The playgrounds were bleak. But home was always warm. My mother and father had a great relationship. I always felt 'safe' there.

I'm always telling myself as I write that I'm not really writing a novel; I'm just going to fool around with a character or an idea.

Salinger is such a terrific writer; he did so many great things. He is one of those writers that I still reread, simply because he makes me see the possibilities and makes me feel like writing. There are certain writers who put you in the mood to write. In the way a whiff of a cigar will bring back memories of a ballgame on a Saturday afternoon, reading Salinger makes me want to get to the typewriter.

Don't miss the bus, boy. You're missing a lot of things in the world, better not miss that bus.

Everybody sins, Francis. The terrible thing is that we love our sins. We love the thing that makes us evil.

They don't actually want you to do your own thing, not unless it's their thing too.

The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile.