He spent four years in the Navy, serving in the Pacific. He lived for awhile in New York, where he mistakenly thought it was necessary to live in order to be a writer. In Chicago, he worked for a pinball machine manufacturer.
[on a collection of Flannery O'Connor's short stories, in a 2011 interview with the Tennessee Literary Project, an archive at Middle Tennessee State University] The Signet edition of "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" was the best 35 cents I ever spent.
