I like having a private name and a public name. It helps keep things straight.

Anything you read can influence your work, so I try to read good stuff.

I go straight from thinking about my narrator to being him.

When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home.

I grew up here and my friends are here. There's nothing wrong with here.

I have no idea why I write. The old standards are: I like to express my feelings, stretch my imagination, earn money.

Movies can't ruin books. They can only ruin movies.

My characters are fictional. I get ideas from real people, sometimes, but my characters always exist only in my head.

Sometimes, I feel like I spent the first part of my life wishing to be a teen-age boy, and the second part condemned to being one.

I was a tomboy and most of my close friends were male.