I developed the habit of writing novels behind a closed door, or at my uncle's, on the dining table.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I've had aunts and uncles who not only haven't read my books but could hardly believe that I was a writer.
I had novels to write, so I wrote them.
I was always a writer, by which I mean I was always scribbling away, doing something with pen and paper.
Writing novels is where I'm most comfortable. It's a very intimate experience.
I remember all the way back in high school thinking about writing books. And, in fact, I've written a lot of stories. I've got dozens of stories I've written that no one's ever seen.
I went to work in 1962, and by '64 I was writing all the time, every night and every weekend. It didn't occur to me that, having read nothing and knowing nothing, I was in no position to write a book.
I began my writing career in a very isolated place and time.
When I was very little, four or five, I did comic strip drawings, so my first novel had no words. I couldn't write and thought adult handwriting was a mysterious scribble. When I was 14, my grandmother gave me a typewriter and I started writing in a different way.
I've discovered writers by reading books left in airplane seats and weird hotels.
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.