But I've been at writing long enough now to know that every three or four books I have to start a new direction.

Gail had a baby named Ned who was four months old, and a new look of baffled hurt, a left-behind sadness, like she saw that the great world kept spinning onward and away while she'd overnight become glued to her spot.

The opening novel of the 'Bayou Trilogy' was the first one I finished.

I had been born shoved to the margins of the world, sure, but I had volunteered for the pits.

I felt like a number of things in me as a writer just clicked.

Pine trees with low limbs spread over fresh snow made a stronger vault for the spirit than pews and pulpits ever could.

The heart makes dreams seem like ideas.