There comes a time in every writer's life when it becomes necessary to recognize what people really care about.
Working in a sugar mill is absolute misery for very little money.
When Ozzie Virgil became the first Dominican player in the majors, his nationality was barely noticed. What the press and fans talked about was his skin color. He was the first black player on the Detroit Tigers, and a great deal of attention was paid to him as someone who crossed the color line.
It's harder to kill off fish than mammals. But after 1,000 years of hunting the Atlantic cod, we know that it can be done.
I am of that '60s generation, and for people of my age, that phrase 'change the world' has a real resonance.
I'm usually writing about survival. I never planned it, but it runs through all my books.
I'm friends with Studs Terkel.
I always wanted an extraordinary life. When it's over, I want to be able to say that I did it.
I'm interested in most everything.
The entire trendy foodie world - food writing, food television, celebrated restaurants - is all about food for the rich. But the most important food issue is how to feed the poor or the hardworking middle class.
I wanted college to be a real American adventure for me.
When you're in theater, you inevitably wind up working in restaurants. I made pastry.
Chroniclers of the role of paper in history are given to extravagant pronouncements: Architecture would not have been possible without paper. Without paper, there would have been no Renaissance. If there had been no paper, the Industrial Revolution would not have been possible. None of these statements is true.
The invention of gas and electric heaters has not meant the end of fireplaces. Printing did not end penmanship, television did not kill radio, movies did not kill theatre, and home videos did not kill movie theaters, although all these things were falsely predicted.
I always wanted to write a book about a common food that becomes a commercial commodity and therefore becomes economically important and therefore becomes politically important and culturally important. That whole process is very interesting to me. And salt seemed to me the best example of that, partly because it's universal.
Things that become important to economies become ritualized and become deified. Because I'm Jewish, I always thought it was interesting that in Judaism, salt seals a bargain, particularly the covenant with God. Some people, when they bless bread, they dip it in salt. Same thing exists in Islam.
I don't do much research on the Internet.
I sometimes think there is nothing really to be said about a novel but 'read the book.' I have a jaundiced view of literary critics.
How you solve your problems are quite different. In non-fiction, you can always go back to the research, whereas in fiction, you have to go back to yourself - which is a little bit scary.
Don't forget the Vietnam War was brought to us by Democrats.
