His office does not have a door. He had it taken off and explains, "I never wanted my kids to feel I was more interested in anything I was doing than I was in them." We sit in the sunny room which looks out across mountains towards Massachusetts. On a shelf is the Oscar he won in 1989 for his screenplay adaptation of The Cider House Rules . On his desk there is a Roget's Thesaurus, frayed around the edges from abundant use. There is also a Webster's Dictionary, Shakespeare's complete works, and several stacks of papers with yellow post-its poking out. A jar of pencils. Another filled with highlighting pens. Irving's heroes are men who take the responsibility of family seriously. For the past 44 years, he has always had a child living with him at home. His two sons, Colin and Brendan, from his first marriage; then just as Brendan left for college, Everett was born. All of his novels have an emphasis on a child at a transitory time. Something happens to them as a witness or a participant and they will be who they become as adults as a result. Irving has been a close observer of childhood adolescence and its transitions and his children have served to keep him connected to those moments. "Your awareness of what childhood is like and when it leaves you is more acute by proximity." But defining what's autobiographical is not, he feels, based on his own childhood events. There