[I had ] uneventful, though isolated childhood. Good, kind, stable parents.

Found a good voice and took advantage of it. Each of my specialties was like a prospector discovering a vein of gold. I worked each until the vein was exhausted.

I am an old-fashioned storyteller. I try to make people laugh and cry. A fiction writer's duty is to entertain. If you can sneak in something profound or symbolic, so much the better.

Curt Flood, of course, was in a class by himself, a true hero.

He bats like a lightning rod.

Syzygy, inexorable, pancreatic, phantasmagoria - anyone who can use those four words in one sentence will never have to do manual labor.

At one time I'd been to every park except Baltimore and Houston, but can't even keep track of who plays where these days.