Quote

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.

My mother won't tolerate any four-letter words.

I remember thinking during those times that I wanted to write in a way where there are no rules.

I started to write when I was eighteen or nineteen. However, until I was about twenty-three, I didn't take it that seriously.

I could list hundreds of words I've come up against in the course of my work that did not exist in the era of which I was writing and for which I never could find a suitably old-time, archaic or obsolete substitute.

I had learning disabilities, and I couldn't express myself in the written word.

I was a good student, but a speech impediment was causing problems. One of my teachers decided that I couldn't pronounce certain words at all. She thought that if I wrote something, I would use words I could pronounce. I began writing little poems. I began to write short stories, too.

I grew up in an atmosphere where words were an integral part of culture.

I didn't learn the alphabet until I was 11.