"I like having a private name and a public name. It helps keep things straight."

"When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home."

"I was a tomboy and most of my close friends were male."

"Sometimes, I feel like I spent the first part of my life wishing to be a teen-age boy, and the second part condemned to being one."

"Anything you read can influence your work, so I try to read good stuff."

"My characters are fictional. I get ideas from real people, sometimes, but my characters always exist only in my head."

"Movies can't ruin books. They can only ruin movies."

"I have no idea why I write. The old standards are: I like to express my feelings, stretch my imagination, earn money."

"I grew up here and my friends are here. There's nothing wrong with here."

"I go straight from thinking about my narrator to being him."