We mark some days as fair, some as foul, because we do not see that the character of every day as identical

The Sixties were different in an isolated place. We got two television channels if the wind was blowing in the right direction. The radio stations went off at sundown. Then you picked up Chicago and heard the teenage music you really yearned for.

I was 46 when 'Cold Mountain' came out. I was settled. We had a nice house in Raleigh and a horse farm.

I had never taken creative writing classes. Hadn't even considered it.

Hardboiled crime fiction came of age in Black Mask magazine during the Twenties and Thirties. Writers like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler learnt their craft and developed a distinct literary style and attitude toward the modern world.

Surely it is a sin to reject the few gifts we are given. Be happy in the flash of time granted to us or hurt forever.

People who are isolated interest me, whether they isolate themselves or have been isolated by circumstances.