We had played a kid's version of gang fighting called "Civil War," and then later we had got in on the real thing, we fought with chains and we fought barefisted and we fought Socs and we fought other grease gangs. It was a normal childhood.

...people get hurt in rumbles, maybe killed. I'm sick of it because it doesn't do any good. You can't win...even if you whip us. You'll still be where you were before- at the bottom. And we'll still be the lucky ones with all the breaks. So it doesn't do any good, the fighting and the killing. It doesn't prove a thing.

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.

Things were rough all over, but it was better that way. That way you could tell the other guy was human too.

My mother was physically and emotionally abusive. My father was an extremely cold man.

All of a sudden it felt like people were peering over my shoulder, wondering what I would write next. I was blocked for four years.

All my life I wanted somebody who knew more than I did to tell me the truth.