People told me to give up trying to be special and settle down to a regular life. There ain't nothing wrong with a regular life, and that's the Lord's truth...but it wasn't for me, because I wanted to be something special. I knew how easy it was for a dream to die. I seen that all around me. You could let it die by just looking the other way.

With my writing, what I want to do is humanize the young people I write about.

Writers do not write what they know. They write what they can imagine.

I wrote for magazines. I wrote adventure stuff, I wrote for the 'National Enquirer,' I wrote advertising copy for cemeteries.

I would enjoy having dinner with the poet/playwright Derek Walcott.

We all know we should eat right and we should exercise, but reading is treated as if it's this wonderful adjunct.

If anyone could look into my head See or feel the dread that has captured Me or see within this sad, unhappy brain They would only turn away Turn away.