Author

My father was a Marine who fought in the Pacific in WW II. He was a very tough guy, but after the war, he lived his life in a quiet and reserved manner because he had nothing to prove. I know now that he internalized his war experience.

I didn't want to write the same book over and over.

I've been working in adult prisons and juvenile prisons for some time.

I like fiction set in the South, and I'm a fan of literary westerns.

'The Deuce' came about when David Simon and I were put in contact with a guy who, along with his twin brother, owned a couple bars in Times Square.

Guys who feel like it makes you a man to make babies, they're completely misguided. It makes you a man to be a father. And I'm not moralising about marriage or anything. I understand that people split up, and marriages don't work out, and people do the best they can. But if you're going to not be there from the very beginning, then don't do it.

I do feel like that's what a writer does, is he goes into other people's heads.

I make a good spaghetti sauce and can mix a nice drink.

Sometimes I think 'The Wire' said it all, and I might as well not write any more crime novels.

I shoot occasionally, but I'm no gun expert.

I go to church for the cultural element. It's where you go to see Greek people once a week. It's real important to me, and I hope my children see they're part of something bigger than just this family.

I get chills when I think that there's a statue of Phil Lynott on a street in Dublin, that people leave flowers by the statue. I love stuff like that.

Movies were the biggest influence on me when I was a kid.

I like writing about people who spend their time trying to help others for the greater good. That's what Americans are supposed to be about, right?

In its rather clinical view of death, 'True Grit' rivals the hardboiled world of 'Red Harvest'-era Dashiell Hammett and prefigures Cormac McCarthy by 20 years.

I shoot occasionally, but I'm no gun expert.

I'm a strong believer in second chances.

As far as I'm concerned, the voices of Washington, black Washington, it's poetry, man. There's beauty in it.

'Treme' begins after Hurricane Katrina, and it's a year-by-year account of how everyday people there put their lives back together. It's sort of a testament to, or an argument for why, a great American city like New Orleans needs to be saved and preserved.

My take on gentrification and change is it's usually always a better thing, because when you see all these businesses open and flourishing, that means there are more jobs.