I think people become consumed with selling a book when they need to be consumed with writing it.

The light was cut to lace by the trees that had grown so thick with leaves in the last few months.

The idea I pursue is the one that keeps coming back to me. The characters I think about as I'm falling asleep at night or when I'm driving to the grocery store are the one's I wind up writing about.

You see an absolutely brilliant film later, as an adult, and you walk out thinking about what to have for dinner. Whereas something like Jaws winds up having a huge effect on me. If only my parents had been taking me to Kurosawa films when I was eight, but no.

Anytime you write about priests or cops, they're hot-button professions.

I'm very sentimental about lobsters. The last lobster I ate was the only lobster I cooked.

If you've had good gin on a hot day in Southern California with the people you love, you forget Nebraska. The two things cannot coexist. The stronger, better of the two wins.