You made a lot of mistakes and you wrote a lot of crap. But it was all part of the learning process.

I can look back at stuff I wrote in my early days and squirm at some of the mistakes I made. But we're all learning every day we never stop. I just hope people keep on liking what I do. That gives me such a kick.

Although Bill Finger literally typed the scripts in the early days he wrote the scripts from ideas that we mutually collaborated on. Many of the unique concepts and story twists also came from my own fertile imagination.

In the beginning we had a great deal of freedom and Jerry wrote completely out of his imagination - very very freely. We even had no editorial supervision to speak of because they were in such a rush to get the thing in before deadline. But later on we were restricted.

Then there was Clark Ashton Smith who wrote for Weird Tales and who had a wild imagination. He wasn't a very talented writer but his imagination was wonderful.

Someone once said that history has more imagination than all the scenario writers in the Pentagon and we have a lot of scenario writers here. No one ever wrote a scenario for commercial airliners crashing into the World Trade Center.

I write from my imagination not from what I've read in books or seen on TV or to make money. I wrote from an idea I was passionate about.

You promised to take care of me and not to turn your back on me. How is it possible that you never wrote to me even once and you never came back to see me? Do you think that it is fun for me to spend months even years without any news without any hope!

'Peace Train' is a song I wrote the message of which continues to breeze thunderously through the hearts of millions. There is a powerful need for people to feel that gust of hope rise up again.

Part of what I loved - and love - about being around older people is the tangible sense of history they embody. I'm interested in military history for instance because both my grandfathers fought in World War II. I'm interested in writing because one of those grandfathers wrote books.