"I started working at 14 at the local library and later graduated to driving a bookmobile."
"I started a newspaper when I was 22 and just out of college; it lasted less than a year, but it got that impulse out of my system so I don't have to do it again.
"I live in the same town where my family has been living since before the Civil War, and I serve here as both a councilman and as the town historian, which means I occasionally visit the grammar schools and embarrass my children there by trying to interest their classes in a bunch of old stories."
"I have three beautiful children who, if they ever choose to become writers themselves, will be fully aware of both the joys and consequences of their choice."