Tell your mother that any clothes she wants to purchase you as a gift has to be suitable for a job interview.

At one point, I had a story accepted at the 'New Yorker,' which sent off weird bells in people when I told them - 'Oh,' they thought, 'now you are a writer' - where I really had been for the last 30-odd years.

Write a story a great writer would write. Because part of becoming an artist is pushing through all the disbelief of those around you, deciding that you are a writer when you have no idea what a plot is or whether what you've written is any good, or anything.

Write something beautiful and honest and that makes you very proud.

The slave narratives, there is a wealth of research there, because you are hearing stories from the first person account, and that's a whole different thing than reading about it in the history books. You're able to really personalize it.

It was totally different. I am living in Sao Paulo and then I'm in Ukraine living in a small city called Donetsk. There's the weather, the language. I went there with my family. That helped a little bit and I ended up staying there for five-and-a-half years. It was important there that I had so many Brazilian players.

This devaluing of listening is handed down from generation to generation. There are many children who don't have the experience of being listened to by their parents.

I'm convinced that what kids need today are parents - not buddies. They need someone who will exercise mature judgment.