But on the other hand, I don't actively seek out stories or hunt them down.

If you dedicate your attention to discipline in your life you become smarter.

They were gone and I missed them but even so I was very happy. For the rest of my life no matter where on this planet earth I went and no matter how scared or confused I got, I could wait until dark and look up into the night sky and see my three friends again and my heart would swell with love of them and make me strong and clearheaded.

I'm seventy-six now. I'm at a stage in my life where I feel a lot of affection and regard for women, and I felt the need to make this clear in some way. I don't know how they'll feel when they read it, but I feel okay about it.

Motivations are too tangled and complex.

Although I still occasionally paint and draw, my life has now been shaped by my writing.

And out of a desire essentially to imitate what I was reading, I began to write, like a clever monkey.