I Was Shot In The Wrist When

People Talk About The 1960s In A Nostalgic Way, But To Me It Was Terrifying. People Were Getting Assassinated. There Was Vietnam. There Were Race Riots. It Felt Like Everything Was Going To Get Blown Up Sky-high. It Didn’t Feel Like Flower Power. It Felt Like Armageddon.

It's One Of The Great Tragedies Of Our Contemporary Life In America, That Families Fall Apart. Almost Everybody Has That In Common.

All That Stuff About My Father And My Childhood Is Interesting Up To A Certain Point, But I Kind Of Capsized With The Family Drama A Long Time Ago. Now I Want To Get Away From That. Not That I Won't Return To It, But A Certain Element Has Been Exhausted, And It Feels Like Why Regurgitate All This Stuff?

The Great Thing For Me, Now, Is That Writing Has Become More And More Interesting. Not Just As A Craft But As A Way Into Things That Are Not Described. It's A Thing Of Discovering. That's When Writing Is Really Working. You're On The Trail Of Something And You Don't Quite Know What It Is.

After The Falling Out With My Father, I Worked On A Couple Of Ranches - Thoroughbred Layup Farms, Actually - Out Toward Chino, California. That Was Fine For A Little While, But I Wanted To Get Out Completely, And Twenty Miles Away Wasnt Far Enough.