When You Read A Great Book, You

To Own A Certain Book - And To Choose It Without Help - Is To Define Yourself.

In 1980, I Published My First Novel, In The Usual Swirl Of Unjustified Hope And Justified Anxiety.

I'm Interested In Such Things As The Difference Between How We Perceive The World And What The World Turns Out To Be. The Difference Is Between The Stories We Tell Others And The Stories We Tell Ourselves. There Is A Wonderful Russian Saying, Which I Use As The Epigraph Of One Of My Novels, Which Goes, He Lies Like An Eyewitness. Which Is Very Sly, Clever And True.

Did You Know That There Is No Exact Rhyme In The Russian Language For The Word 'pravda'? Ponder And Weigh This Insufficiency In Your Mind. Doesn't That Just Echo Down The Canyons Of Your Soul?

Writers Of Either Gender Ought To Be Able To Do The Opposite Sex-that's One Basic Test Of Competence, After All.