I grew up in the middle of dairy country in Wisconsin, about as far from any major metropolitan area as you can get. I always assumed I was going to be an actor. I don't know why. I didn't have any reason to think that. In fact, when I finally did try it, when I was in college, I was really bad at it and didn't enjoy it.

My childhood was spent with dogs, and I work with dogs surrounding me. This relationship is hardly unique - man-and-dog stories date back to ancient history, up to 10,000 years ago - but it feels that way to me. I used to have a love-hate relationship with dog stories because some got the dynamic right but most were dead wrong.

It is as true for the writer as for the reader that any novel worth its ink should be an experience first and foremost - not an essay, not a statement, not an orderly rollout of themes and propositions.

When you're making something big, whether it's long-form fiction or a big piece of software, whatever that is, you're having a very intimate and extended conversation with the work materials themselves.

Oh, my God, I don't think any player can look forward to or expect to a career of so many Grand Slam wins or title wins or being so long at the top of the game.

This will pass and it always does.' I consistently have to keep telling myself that because being an entrepreneur means that you go to those dark places a lot, and sometimes they're real. You're wondering if you can you make payroll. There is a deadline, and you haven't slept in a while. It's real.

I consider myself very lucky indeed to have had the career I have. I listen to the radio now and you can't tell artists apart.

I certainly derived my skills as a prose writer from my scrutiny of poetry and of the individual word. But schools don't do things like that anymore - tracking words down to their roots.