Vaughn's Vision Is Older, Wiser And Harder

A Creative Life Cannot Be Sustained By Approval, Any More Than It Can Be Destroyed By Criticism.

The Life Of The Professional Writer - Like That Of Any Freelance, Whether She Be A Plumber Or A Podiatrist - Is Predicated On Willpower. Without It There Simply Wouldn't Be Any Remuneration, Period.

In Truth, Even If They Have An Imperfect Insight Into Their Own Methods, I Still Slightly Mistrust Writers Of Fiction Who Are Assured Literary Critics; It Makes Me Suspect That They Favour The Word Over The World It Should Describe. Such Scribes Fall Victim Too Easily To The Solecism Of Equating Style With Morality.

There Can Be No More Thrilling Idea Of Intimacy That Connecting With Someone Through The Agency Of The Written Word. Here We Meet, On The Page, Naked And Unadorned: Shorn Of Class, Race, Gender, Sexual Identity, Age And Nationality. The Reader I Seek Is A Tautology, For He/she Is Simply Exactly The Person Who Wants To Read What I Have Written...

A Very Beautiful Young Woman Once Asked Me To Sign Her Breasts. That Was Back When I Was A Hip Young Thing - It's Been All Downhill Since Then.