I wanted to be a writer since I was thirteen, when I read Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. I put the book down, I looked up, and I said, "I want to be able to talk to a reader the way J.D. Salinger just spoke to me."

I've written fourteen novels, two stage plays, three movie scripts, and a dozen short stories, often instead of working paying jobs like people tell me I'm supposed to do.