For any writer, the ability to look at a sentence and see what's superfluous, what can be altered, revised, expanded, and, especially, cut, is essential. It's satisfying to see that sentence shrink, snap into place, and ultimately emerge in a more polished form: clear, economical, sharp.

I think poets are much more dramatic, more theatrical than fiction writers.

I went through college in the 1960s without having any idea that I was going to have to make a living. When I graduated in 1968 it was quite a shock to find out that there was a world out there and that it wasn't going to support me.

Long before the idea of a writer's conference was a glimmer in anyone's eye, writers learned by reading the work of their predecessors. They studied meter with Ovid, plot construction with Homer, comedy with Aristophanes; they honed their prose style by absorbing the lucid sentences of Montaigne and Samuel Johnson.

It's true that being in an individual sport, you have to be a little bit selfish.

With the responsibility of being a professional athlete, I believe that it is on us to go out there and help people.

My first waitress job was at Johnny Rockets in New Jersey, and then I waited tables at a sports bar.

Hopefully, now there are kids, both male and female, even senior players, who open themselves up now and are more open to going abroad and playing their football. I've learnt so much, and they can, too.