I Was Fortunate To Get A Lot

Most All Of The Writers I Admired When I Was In My Teens And Twenties Died Young. Fitzgerald Lived The Longest. He Was 44. Dylan Thomas Was 39. And Then Once You're Approaching 40, You Suddenly Think, "well, Maybe I Would Like To Live Longer Than Fitzgerald Or Thomas."

Most Novelists I Know Went Through A Period Of Intense Self-examination And Self-loathing After The Terrorist Attacks On The World Trade Center. I Certainly Did.

A Modest Critique Of An Age In Which An Actor Is The President, In Which Fashion Models Are Asked For Their Opinions, In Which Getting Into A Nightclub Is Seen As A Significant Human Achievement.

The Capacity For Friendship Is God's Way Of Apologizing For Our Families.

I'm Afraid That - Not Necessarily Deliberately, But Consistently - I've Made A Kind Of Laboratory Out Of My Life, Where I Mix The Stuff In The Test Tubes To Create Explosions - Possibly Resulting In Interesting By-products. I Mean, Not Deliberately - I'd Be Crazy To Deliberately Do That - Or Maybe Not.