David Burnett was the son of Martha Foley, who edited the Best American Short Stories series. She hired me to work with David and her to read stories for the anthology.

Sometimes we would be staked out in the middle of the river, several barges tied together. So we could party.

When I finally made it to the set, I spent a lot of time doing damage control on The Magic Christian.

There is no power on earth that can loosen a man's grip on his own throat

I learned not to care ... and to write for an imaginary reader whose tastes were similar to my own.

I don't know why, but I always feel a kind of necessity to write things that are beyond acceptance, that are too offensive or something. For people to read them and say, Ha-ha-ha, very funny. No, we can't print that.

Grossing Out dealt with the western nations selling arms to the Third World and exploiting these countries.