It’s reasonable to think that I might have pulled my punches in writing a book “for Ted Turner,” but I did nothing of the kind. It was only after hearing from a few hundred readers of Ishmael that I realized that some of the punches delivered in that book weren’t getting through.

I knew at that point that I really had to “sit down” on my punches in my next book (to continue the boxing metaphor). This explains the difference in style you perceive between Ishmael and The Story of B.

ID: 12
posted: 1997