Leon Uris

I have drawn inspiration from the Marine Corps, the Jewish struggle in Palestine and Israel, and the Irish.

You can try to reach an audience, but you just write what comes out of you and you just hope that it is accepted. You do not write specifically to a generation.

So writing is a very, very difficult position to obtain... and retain.

I wanted to be a teacher, but I was a lousy student, one of the slowest readers. It was a tremendous struggle. But I'm lucky I had some teachers who saw something in me.

They said I couldn't play anything but an English boy. I knew I could. So I went to New York.

I just hate sitting and writing - I had to do that in school. Plus, I have terrible handwriting.