Public Libraries Have Been A Mainstay Of

Writers Turn Dreams Into Print.

I Wish I Could Tell You About The South Pacific. The Way It Actually Was. The Endless Ocean. The Infinite Specks Of Coral We Called Islands. Coconut Palms Nodding Gracefully Toward The Ocean. Reefs Upon Which Waves Broke Into Spray, And Inner Lagoons, Lovely Beyond Description. I Wish I Could Tell You About The Sweating Jungle, The Full Moon Rising Behind The Volcanoes, And The Waiting. The Waiting. The Timeless, Repetitive Waiting.

As A Younger Man I Wrote For Eight Years Without Ever Earning A Nickel Which Is A Long Apprenticeship, But In That Time I Learned A Lot About My Trade.

I Feel Myself The Inheritor Of A Great Background Of People. Just Who, Precisely, They Were, I Have Never Known. I Might Be Part Negro, Might Be Part Jew, Part Muslim, Part Irish. So I Can't Afford To Be Supercilious About Any Group Of People Because I May Be That People.

Character Consists Of What You Do On The Third And Fourth Tries.