Writing Novels Is An Essentially Amateur Activity.

Most Of My Childhood Revolved Around Wondering When We Would Be Blown Up By The Russians. I Couldn't Stand The News, I Knew That If The Missile Were Launched, Mortality Would Arrive In Half An Hour, So I Spent A Lot Of My Childhood Feeling That I Was 30 Minutes From Being Dead.

I Was Depressed, But That Was A Side Issue. This Was More Like Closing Up Shop, Or, Say, Having A Big Garage Sale, Where You Look At Everything You've Bought In Your Life, And You Remember How Much It Meant To You, And Now You Just Tag It For A Quarter And Watch 'em Carry It Off, And You Don't Care. That's More Like How It Was.

We Sort Of Read Two Or Three Big Newspapers But We Don't Get The Flavor Of The Local Events, The Local News As Much.

In The Traditional Urban Novel, There Is Only Survival Or Not. The Suburban Idea, The Conformist Idea, That Agony Can Be Seen To And Cured By Doctors Or Psychoanalysis Or Self-knowledge Is Nowhere To Be Found In The City. Talking Is A Way Of Life, But It Is Not A Cure. Same With Religion.

My Characters Never Die Screaming In Rage. They Attempt To Pull Themselves Back Together And Go On. And That's Basically A Conservative View Of Life.