When I'm working on something, I proceed as if no one else will ever read it.

Farmers are patient men. They got to be. Got to see those seeds come up week by week, fraction by fraction, and sweat it out for some days not knowing yet is it weeds or vegetables.

They were like people who run to meet, holding out their arms, but their aim is wrong; they pass each other and keep running.

Ever consider what pets must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul - chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on earth!

And I am interested in the fact that class is very much a factor in America, even though it's not supposed to be.

The hardest novel to write was Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant.

There is no true life. Your true life is the one you end up with, whatever it may be. You just do the best you can with what you've got.