I have no idea why I write. The old standards are: I like to express my feelings, stretch my imagination, earn money.

You know what the crummiest feeling you can have is? To hate the person you love the best in the world.

the person in this picture is really me.

If you want to be a writer, I have two pieces of advice. One is to be a reader. I think that's one of the most important parts of learning to write. The other piece of advice is 'Just do it!' Don't think about it, don't agonize, sit down and write.

You take up for your buddies, no matter what they do. When you're a gang, you stick up for the members. If you don't stick up for them, stick together, make like brothers, it isn't a gang anymore. It's a pack. A snarling, distrustful, bickering park like the Socs in their social clubs or the street gangs in New York or the wolves in the timber.

I never base a character on someone I know. You can get ideas from real life, but every character you write is some aspect of yourself.

...I knew he would be dead, because Dally Winston wanted to be dead and he always got what he wanted.