I even dream about writing. I'm talking seeing words across the page, whole paragraphs.
It would probably surprise people how prevalent reading is in institutions - and the degree to which some states discourage reading by instituting draconian rules and laws that try to limit and outright roadblock books in prisons.
I don't judge anyone of any stripe by what they read. Reading is always good for you. It's a positive act.
Incarcerated individuals want what most people want in a novel: good, honest writing and a story well told.
There's a room in my house where my stereo, records, CDs, and books are housed. I spend a lot of time in that room, sitting in my chair beside the fireplace, reading and listening to music. Sometimes I just stand before the shelves and look at my books, because every single one of them means something to me.
'The Big Sky' is an American classic.
My goal is to get better with each book, and I feel like I am.
When I was 19, my dad got sick, and I quit college to take over his business, a coffee shop on 19th Street, below Dupont Circle in D.C. I had been working there since I was 11 years old, so it was not a stretch to think that I could do it, but my record as a teenager, in many respects, was less than stellar.
I'm always working on my next novel, even when I'm not.
I make a good spaghetti sauce and can mix a nice drink.
Every young man's best purchase is his first car, which spells freedom. My first one was a '70 Camaro, springtime gold-over-saddle, a 307 with Hi-jackers and chrome reverse mags.
I had met many wounded veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center when I was researching my 2009 novel 'The Turnaround,' and I continue to be very interested in how returning servicemen and women deal with their new lives back home and how they're treated by America.
My father was a Marine who fought in the Pacific in WW II. He was a very tough guy, but after the war, he lived his life in a quiet and reserved manner because he had nothing to prove. I know now that he internalized his war experience.
I've just been very interested in the living side of Washington, rather than the federal side, since I was a kid.
I am on my bike daily, and most of the locations, warehouses and specific residences from 'The Cut' were found while I was riding.
'The Deuce' came about when David Simon and I were put in contact with a guy who, along with his twin brother, owned a couple bars in Times Square.
'The Deuce' takes a look at the remarkable paradigm of capitalism and labor: where money goes and how it's routed; who has power and who doesn't; who is exploited and who's not.
I always overtip. When I go to England, people think I'm stupid.
I live in a bigger house, but I still live in the neighbourhood I grew up in.
Until a book starts forming in your head, you always wonder, 'Am I going to be able to do this again?'
