We Do. Or Re-create The Ones We

Cats Gotta Scratch. Dogs Gotta Bite. I Gotta Write.

As Critical Acclaim And Response Has Built Up, Every Interview I Give Is A Chance To Puncture The Myth I've Created About My Work And Refine It.

America Was Never Innocent. We Popped Our Cherry On The Boat Over And Looked Back With No Regrets. You Can't Ascribe Our Fall From Grace To Any Single Event Or Set Of Circumstances. You Can't Lose What You Lacked At Conception.

The 250-page Outline For American Tabloid. The Books Are So Dense. They're So Complex, You Cannot Write Like I Write Off The Top Of Your Head. It's The Combination Of That Meticulousness And The Power Of The Prose And, I Think, The Depth Of The Characterizations And The Risks That I've Taken With Language That Give The Books Their Clout. And That's Where I Get Pissed Off At A Lot Of My Younger Readers.

You Try To Learn Who You Are. You Work Hard. You've Either Got It Or You Don't When It Comes To Writing Books. And You Tend To Only Get These Things If You Want Them, And Want Them To The Exclusion Of Everything Else.