Fear Is Often Disguised As Moral Outrage.

I Was Sick All The Time, One Exotic Illness After Another, Which Lasted Throughout My Twenties. My Worst Decade. But From The Day The First Book Was Accepted, I Never Got Sick Again. Writing Changed My Life.

I Still Get Angry When Older People Assume That Everyone In My Generation, Screws Around. They're Probably The Same Ones Who Think All Kids Use Dope. It's True That We Are More Open Than Our Parents But That Just Means We Accept Sex And Talk About It. It Doesn't Mean We Are All Jumping Into Bed Together.

I've Heard That Some Authors Do Dream Their Books And I Would Love That If It Happened To Me, But So Far It Hasn't. Sometimes I'll Get A Good Idea During The Night And If I Don't Write It Down, I Won't Remember It The Next Morning.

When I Was Twelve. And I Was Going Through My Parents' Bookshelves, I Found The Most Wonderful Books And Plenty Of. Within Those Wonderful Books That Were Real Turn-on's. At 12 Or 13, Books Were Such Turn-ons.

In This Age Of Censorship, I Mourn The Loss Of Books That Will Never Be Written, I Mourn The Voices That Will Be Silenced-writers' Voices, Teachers' Voices, Students' Voices-and All Because Of Fear.