Time is never wasted coming to an old man bar.

Donkeys are the most misunderstood and abused animals around the world.

Where I live you're not supposed to shoot a firearm within a quarter mile of a dwelling.

I think back when I was kind of a crappy writer, I really did know my time was better spent working and having adventures and seeing the world.

Nobody tells young writers it's okay if you're not very good, you'll get better. So I just thought I'm not very good, so I should try to do every other thing besides writing. That's how I ended up being a hitchhiker, a world traveler, and a mathematician.

I didn't actually figure out how to get guidance, so I just decided to go to school at University of Southern California because they sent me a glossy brochure.

Mostly the natural landscapes work as a sounding board for my characters, so they can understand themselves, and it acts as a mirror in which we readers see ourselves. The natural world is the place into which all my characters have to situate themselves in order to be who they really are, and that makes my rural fiction feel different from a lot of urban fiction.