Books set in Brooklyn and L.A. are often about people who are rootless, who want to go somewhere else. In the Midwest, though, the stories are about people who want to stay where they are - who like where they are.
You have the feeling that if you get a Pulitzer, you're somehow set for life.
A lot of my friends were retiring from the newspaper business, and the newspaper pensions are not enormous.
My kids, who are grown now and living in L.A., are used to me packing up and taking off to somewhere weird.
If you do outline, you have to be aware of the problems that that kind of thing can cause.
I'm an outdoors kind of guy.
