Where did you grow up and what was your childhood like? Did you have any particular experiences/stories that shaped your adult life?

I grew up in Manhattan next door to Mt. Sinai Hospital where my father was a doctor, a radiologist. One of my strongest memories from that period was watching some FBI agents in fedoras interview our building’s superintendent about my father who was applying for security clearance. (This was the 1950s.) I was very worried because I played ball with that super’s son and knew the man was a drunk who beat his kid. I was scared he would make up bad things about my father. Whatever he did, my father got the clearance.

What is something you wish you would’ve realized earlier in your life?

My parents warned me not to get married at 21 but I did anyway. Two great kids came of the marriage, but it ended in divorce in my mid-thirties. It was hard to live through.

What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession or area of expertise?

No one should be a writer as a profession in the conventional sense. It should be a need. You have to express yourself or else. It’s the only thing that you really want to do, that fulfills you. If you don’t have that burning need, don’t do it. Otherwise, there will be too many ups and downs, even if you’re Hemingway. Especially if you’re Hemingway.

Tell me about one of the darker periods you’ve experienced in life. How you came out of it and what you learned from it?

Going through that divorce with two children was the darkest period of my life. I came out of it in the normal way—time—but also with the help of a therapist who taught me Zen meditation. Zen Buddhism is one of the most useful life philosophies ever devised. Unfortunately for me, I only have had the discipline to follow through with its meditation techniques during those “dark periods.” Still, I always know it’s there.

What is one thing that you do that you feel has been the biggest contributor to your success so far?

That I truly love what I do.

What is your morning routine?

Coffee, coffee, and yet more coffee. And after that, a cappuccino or an espresso. Most days I wake up around 7:30, except Tuesdays when—Heaven help me– I have to be in a talk radio studio by 7. As I grow older, I try to get up later—the medical community recommends that– and am quite good at succeeding. What I’m not so good at is fasting until the afternoon, another medical recommendation these days.

What habit or behavior that you have pursued for a few years has most improved your life?

I have played tennis all my life, even though I am only a middling club player. But as I have grown older, I have increased my playing time to two or three times a week, occasionally four. I am convinced playing tennis is one of the secrets to longevity and, as it turns out, a Danish study showed it added a stunning 9.7 years to someone’s life, more than any other sport. It’s also good for the mind. The late Robin Williams called it “chess at ninety miles per hour.”

What are your strategies for being productive and using your time most efficiently?

I am addicted to writing the way others are addicted to things that are not as good for them. If a day goes by and I haven’t written at least a page or two, I’m quite grumpy. So, using time efficiently for work is not a problem for me. Addict that I am, wind me up, and off I go. For getting drudgery done, however—bills, taxes, and so forth—I will procrastinate forever and have no solution to that.

What book(s) have influenced your life the most? Why?

The detective novels of Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald, also the thrillers of John LeCarré, influenced me to become a writer. When I wrote the Moses Wine mysteries, they were an attempt to update those writers for the hippie period.

Do you have any quotes you live by or think of often?

“When somebody says it’s not about the money, it’s about the money.” – H. L. Mencken.