I learned how to live on five and sometimes ten dollars a week.

As far as Im concerned, I didnt dream - ever.

Once I had all the facts in, I found I didn't have the immoral courage to pull the caper. So I wrote it as a story. As a teenager, I didn't have any skills for writing as such, so it came out in 1500 words.

I've always written very tightly, and there's a good reason for that. There's no point in using words that you're not going to apply.

As far as hypnosis is concerned, I had a very serious problem when I was in my twenties. I encountered a man who later became the president of the American Society of Medical Hypnosis. He couldn't hypnotize me.

When you combine something to say with the skill to say it properly, then you've got a good writer.

I teach writing courses and first of all, I teach my students what prosody is.