I'm A Novelist, Period. An American Novelist.

There's A Moral Force In A Sentence When It Comes Out Right. It Speaks The Writer's Will To Live.

First You Look For Discipline And Control. You Want To Exercise Your Will, Bend The Language Your Way, Bend The World Your Way. You Want To Control The Flow Of Impulses, Images, Words, Faces, Ideas. But There's A Higher Place, A Secret Aspiration. You Want To Let Go. You Want To Lose Yourself In Language, Become A Carrier Or Messenger.

Look Past The Violence. There Is A Wonderful Brimming Spirit Of Innocence And Fun.

The Family Was An Art ... And The Dinner Table Was The Place It Found Expression.

People Think About Who They Are In The Stillest Hour Of The Night. I Carry This Thought, The Child's Mystery And Terror Of This Thought, I Feel This Immensity In My Soul Every Second Of My Life.