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I can't imagine my life without books. My father was an electrical engineer, and my mother was a public school teacher. Books were an integral part of my childhood.

I didn't go to school a full year until I was 11 or 12, so I lived in books. I really was an observer of life.

I read a book a day when I was a kid. My family was not literary; we did not have any books in the house.

My grandfather could barely read. My grandmother had a sixth-grade education. They were people who were industrious. They were frugal.

My whole life was geared toward being a highly educated person.

I grew up in the suburbs among highly educated people, in a house crammed with books. It was a culture rich in ideas, stimulation, entertainment, and mental activity, all helpful to the nurture of an imaginative child who wanted from an early age to be a writer.

I grew up in a home where reading was a big deal.

When I was growing up, my house was filled with books. My mother was an educator, and my father was a history buff, so our home was a virtual library, covering every author from Beverly Cleary to James Michener.

I loved to read and to write, but then something happened. As I made my way through school, I kept getting handed books to read that didn't excite me and didn't even remotely connect to the realities of my life.