When I was a child I used to read books by Gerald Durrell who founded Jersey Zoo. He had a job collecting animals for zoos and for a long time that is what I wanted to do. Later when I was a teenager I had a fantastic English teacher called Mrs. Stafford. Her enthusiasm made me decide to be a writer.

I grew up in New Jersey and my father was a golf pro so I was groomed for sports but I wasn't very good so my interests lay elsewhere.

The difference between the old ballplayer and the new ballplayer is the jersey. The old ballplayer cared about the name on the front. The new ballplayer cares about the name on the back.

The state of New Jersey is really two places - terrible cities and wonderful suburbs. I live in the suburbs the final battleground of the American dream where people get married and have kids and try to scratch out a happy life for themselves. It's very romantic in that way but a bit naive. I like to play with that in my work.

It's not that I'm universally loved. We know I'm not in New Jersey. But what they do say in New Jersey is 'We like him and we think he's telling us the truth.' I think we need to have that type of politics on the national level.

I have 23 top players and they are all ready to put on the jersey and work on the pitch and that makes you happy and then you have peace of mind.

My mom used to take me down to the Jersey Shore when I was 7 8 9 years old. I can remember being down in that area - Belmar Seaside Heights Asbury Park and all those places that I went back and revisited.

When I was growing up in New Jersey my mom would regularly take my sister and I into the city to see shows. I have many fond memories of standing in the half-price ticket line in Times Square and going to matinees.

I later spent... five to eight months in hospitals in New Jersey always on an involuntary basis and always attempting a legal argument for release.

Artificial Intelligence leaves no doubt that it wants its audiences to enter a realm of pure fantasy when it identifies one of the last remaining islands of civilization as New Jersey.