“There’s got to be a minimum basic kind of competence before you can even begin to think of writing, and there’s got to be a whole hell of a lot more than that before you can even dream of being one of those writers who appear in the how-to-read anthologies. I don’t say it can’t happen. It can happen. You don’t even have to be a better person. All you have to do is have that twist of the mind that is true talent. You have to see everything in a way that’s not just accurate but peculiar--that’s all, just have an originality of perception and utterance.”