Everybody Sins, Francis. The Terrible Thing Is

You Seldom Get A Censorship Attempt From A 14-year-old Boy. It's The Adults Who Get Upset.

...pain Reaches A Certain Point And Does Not Get Worse But Remains In All Its Intensity And You Can Survive It.

A Novel Must Work As A Story Because No One's Going To Get To The Other Themes If You Don't Entertain The Reader. But I Like To Have Another Layer Of Meaning, Although You Can Read The Book On One Level And Not Bother With That Other Layer.

I Read A Lot Of Detective Stories Because They Always Deliver. They Give You A Beginning, A Middle, And An End - A Resolution. The Modern Novels I Read Don't Always Deliver Because I'm Looking Essentially For A Story. As In Shakespeare, "the Play's The Thing." In Particular I Read Detective Stories For Pacing, Plot And Suspense.

A Man I Know Who Writes And Aspires To Be A Novelist Does Very Little Reading, And He's Not That Successful. But I Think It's Because He's Like The Kid Who Wants To Be A Ballplayer And Never Goes To The Ballpark Or Tries To Hit A Ball. So I'd Say Reading Is The Most Important Thing That I Do, Besides The Actual Writing. I'm Always Asking As I Read, "how Did The Writer Do This? Why Do I Suddenly Have Tears In My Eyes? Why Am I Crying?"