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Wherever I am, I take books, not novels.

I collect books, primarily first-edition 20th-century fiction.

I am a big book collector. I love books.

I collect books - a lot of books.

I grew up in a house with very few books.

I got my first book deal when I was in college, but it was published in Germany, and I could never actually read it.

One, I have a wonderful publisher, Black Sparrow Press; as long as they exist, they will keep me in print. And they claim they sell very respectable numbers of my books, so I guess, and it's true, every place I go, my books are in libraries and on bookshelves.

American books reflect our common heritage with many other nations and their influence upon our culture. The influences are endless, linking us with the rest of the world. Thus, they are good ambassadors for us.

My books are, in a way, a record of my life - that part of it that came to flower and fruit in my mind.

I've seen a lot of the United States, having stayed in so many different cities and towns for work. It's such a strange and fascinating country, and instead of learning about it through a textbook, I would rather discover its history and traditions and institutions through fiction and nonfiction writers.