A story must simmer in its own juice for months or even years before it's ready to serve.

Anything can have happened in Oklahoma. Practically everything has.

The feminine in the man is the sugar in the whisky. The masculine in the woman is the yeast in the bread. Without these ingredients the result is flat, without tang or flavor.

I suppose it is a gift, being young, but it isn't special. We've all got it, early in life.

Living the past is a dull and lonely business; looking back strains the neck muscles, causing you to bump into people not going your way.

Life can't ever really defeat a writer who is in love with writing, for life itself is a writer's lover until death – fascinating, cruel, lavish, warm, cold, treacherous, constant.

If it's freedom you want, come to Texas. No one there tells you what to do and how you have to do it.