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I love painting and music, of course. I don't know nearly as much about them as I know about poetry. I've certainly been influenced by fiction. I was overwhelmed by War and Peace when I read it, and I didn't read it until I was in my late 20s.

I liked drawing and painting, because the only failure would be to listen to the doubters who wanted me to stop drawing and painting because 'you aren't going to make a living doing that.' I liked looking in art books at the work of painters.

I have always loved reading, so was interested in the literary world, and took many literary portraits.

I have always loved science, but I have always loved the arts - drawing, painting and, yes, writing - more.

In school, some of my favorite subjects... I mean, art was my favorite subject. I loved art! I used to go during lunch time to the art room and paint or draw or something.

My reading and drawing drew me away from the ordinary interests, and I lived a great deal in the world of imagination, feeding upon any book that fell into my hands. When I had got hold of a really thick book like Hugo's 'Les Miserables,' I was happy and would go off into a corner to devour it.

I like contemporary American literature and I like biographies and I like jazz and I like baseball and I like writers who write about the human condition and sci-fi is just something that I happened into.

What interests me most is when a work of art is no longer just an object, but also touches reality and life.

My education, according to the tradition of the Jesuit school which I attended, had been centered on the 'ancient humanities', and I was strongly attracted to the more literary branches.

I also had a tremendous passion for art and read a lot.