Your readers are interested in your childhood. What was it like?
I grew up in a small town. We lived in very poor housing but we lived always in very beautiful settings, so I have favorite trees and I have contacted with birds. My parents were farm workers. Though we were poor for most of part, I think I was often happy.
It would not have been expected from that background that you'll become a literary figure. Was your mother ambitious with you?
Well, my mother wasn't especially ambitious with me in the sense of going to college when I grew up. I think her greatest contribution was simply that she loved me very much. No matter what happened, I had my mother with me.
She gave you confidence.
Oh, she did. She earned very little money, offering about $10 a week and never more than $ 20 a week. And in spite of that, she managed to buy a typewriter for me. She managed to buy me my first toothpaste when I left home. She just wanted me to be able to do things that she couldn't do even she didn't know what they were.