All writers want to know that someone is reading their work, taking them seriously. It provides a kind of moral support.

I'm an active author: I travel to give readings and talks, although I know it's risky.

To be censored is one sure way of knowing you have been taken dead seriously. It also speaks to the continuing power of the printed word, almost fifteen hundred years after that amazing invention.

I'm 68 years old, and I'm as much a criminal now as I was at the age of 22. And, I'm even more of a dissident than I was then.

I couldn't swear that I believed in the law - or in the American legal system.

I over-scrutinize anyone new entering my life.