Carmen prayed hard. She prayed while standing near the priest in hopes it would give her request extra credibility. What she prayed for was nothing. She prayed that God would look on them and see the beauty of their existence and leave them alone.

I saw that my best work was my most personal work, which is odd, because my fiction is very far afield and has nothing to do with my life.

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.

The secret is to keep adding voices, adding ideas, and moving things around as you put together your life. If you’re lucky, putting together your life is a process that will last through every single day you’re alive.

I don't believe in fate, as in, which I - as a Catholic, I think, sort of predestination. But I certainly believe in chance.

Art stands on the shoulders of craft, which means that to get to the art, you must master the craft.

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