Peter Matthiessen

I used to distinguish between my fiction and nonfiction in terms of superiority or inferiority.

I was just very interested in the American frontier and the growth of capitalism - those enormous fortunes that were being made, more often than not, on the blood of poor people, black people, Indian people. They were the ones who paid very dearly for tho

In fiction, you have a rough idea what's coming up next - sometimes you even make a little outline - but in fact you don't know. Each day is a whole new - and for me, a very invigorating - experience.

In nonfiction, you have that limitation, that constraint, of telling the truth.