I could teach. I could wait tables. I could cook in a restaurant. Food and teaching were the two skills I had.

You can't spend your whole life in front of a screen.

That's the way I work. I get it all plotted in my mind, and then I write it down.

Write because you love the art and the discipline, not because you're looking to sell something.

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.

I believe, in my better moments, that there is a plan and things go not the way we want them to but the way they should.

The hardest piece of nonfiction I ever wrote isn't anywhere close to the easiest piece of fiction I never wrote.