I suppose I'm proudest of my novels for what's imagined in them. I think the world of my imagination is a richer and more interesting place than my personal biography.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
People who think my books are autobiographical, which they're not, credit me with having a much better memory than I do. I do, however, have a powerful imagination.
My novels are certainly more exciting than my own life.
With each book I write, I become more and more convinced that the books have a life of their own, quite apart from me.
Fiction is the thing I esteem most in my own work; I feel that, even if it's no good, only I could have written those books.
I sometimes think that, since I started writing biographies, I've had more of a life in books than I have had in my real life.
I view myself as a fiction writer who just happens to write nonfiction. I think I look at the world through a fiction-writer's eyes.
I try to write about things, places, events, and phenomena I know about personally. That helps make the novels more genuine.
I think because I try to keep things as real as I can, or I try to start from a place of reality, I almost don't have the imagination to write a book that's not set where I am.
I think of my novels as entertainments.
The most deeply personal of my works are the non-fiction works, the autobiographical works, because there, I'm talking about myself very directly.