Being a man doesn't stop Michael Cunningham from delving into the minds of women.

The 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning author of novel-turned-movie "The Hours" doesn't believe in boundaries.

"I don't believe in set limits as to who can write about whom," he said. "I don't believe in rules that African Americans can't write about white people, men can't write about women, or a dog can't write about a cat. I don't believe it at all."

On March 23, Cunningham will be a part of the audience of the 75th Academy Awards cheering on those who helped make "The Hours" a success.

"I, of course, am not nominated for the Oscar, which puts me in the best possible position," he laughed. "I can have fun."

The screenplay has garnered a slew of awards, and a total of nine Oscar nominations, including best picture and a nomination for Nicole Kidman as best actress for her role as Virginia Woolf.

"It was significant to me that the film involved three of the most gifted actresses working today, which says something encouraging as to who we elect to be our movie stars," said Cunningham of Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Kidman.

"I would have been just as impressed if the performances were this caliber, but by unknowns. It was remarkable to see three brilliant actresses take these characters where they took them."

The success of "The Hours" as a film doesn't surprise Cunningham, who says the movie struck a chord with audiences due to a significant number of people who want to see a different kind of movie.

"If you offer people something intelligent and a little difficult, they'll respond," he said. "I think the book and movie are successful for more similar reasons than they are for their differences. Both the book and movie are about, at their very core, a kind of hope, a kind of optimism that can survive the worst of what might happen to people."

Growing up as a young boy in Pasadena, Calif., Cunningham says he was an avid reader whose nose was always buried in a book. One of his greatest inspirations, he says, was the novel "Mrs. Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf, who plays an intricate role in the novel.

"The Hours," which took Cunningham three years to complete, combines the real life story of Woolf (Kidman), a re-written one (Moore) and an original creation (Streep). The three stories, tied together by "Mrs. Dalloway," are combined into a complex drama that has impressed audiences and critics alike.

Woolf creates the character, a lonely housewife is inspired by it and Streep's character is a New Yorker living her life much as Mrs. Dalloway did.

The Stanford-educated novelist has often been told he has a knack for getting into the minds of women. He says on many an occasion, women have asked how he knows them so well.

"I can only smile and say, 'I have no idea,'" he laughed. "But if you don't love and respect someone, I don't think you can write about them."

Many have said "The Hours" excludes a portion of the audience with the heavy homosexual and feminist theme, but Cunningham encourages audiences to "get over it."

"Why would anyone be anything other than interested in a movie that is about lives other than their own. If you are white, I would hope you are interested about people of other races, women interested in a movie about men. If you are heterosexual, I hope you are interested in movies about gay people. Part of the point of movies and novels is they help us live in a bigger world."

Cunningham says he is concerned with the future of literature. He says it is important for aspiring writers to understand they have to be "enormously determined and ferociously patient" and that giving up too soon is the biggest mistake.

"It took me 10 years of writing before people started publishing me," he said.

"If you do it long enough, they'll catch up with you."