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I had no student friends to talk to about literature. My tutor was a really nice man, very charming - but he had no literary judgment.

I haven't been the kind of writer about whom book-length academic studies have been written.

I went to college, though I didn't take many writing courses.

Before college, I hadn't voluntarily read anything that might be called literature; I didn't think I'd understand it; I never seemed to understand my English teacher's interpretations of what we read.

I did not discover literature of any kind until I was about eleven, or ten.

I was an English major in college with minors in Fine Arts and Humanities.

I had no interest in history classes. In fact, I used to sleep in history classes, I used to bunk classes. But that is how students are supposed to be, no? I developed an interest in history much later. I have made a few films based on historical facts.

I didn't go to graduate school, where all the important writers seemed to be getting their start. I didn't pursue getting published in literary magazines. I didn't even send out countless pitch letters and manuscripts to agents.

I didn't go to university, and I always had in my mind that I hadn't studied properly.