"I've always felt, as a writer, that radicals are fascinating because they're relations, they have a place in the American family. They're the relatives everyone wishes would go away. They're the embarrassments to decorum and good taste."
E. L. Doctorow was an American novelist best known for historical fiction including Ragtime, Billy Bathgate, and The March. His work combined literary craft with American historical themes, and he received major national literary honors.