As for anticipation, you never know what to expect of a book. They're like kids: you bring them into the world, fret about them, and then at some point there's no other option but to turn them lose and see how they do.

I love Austin. It's great here. I don't mind the heat.

I got hooked on TV westerns back in the early sixties when I was about five, mostly because my brother was addicted to them and wouldn't let me watch anything else.

I wrote a paper [in school] on [William] Faulkner and no one could tell what the sentences meant.

It took me ten years to write The Night Journal, so that was a big ordeal.

I think when you're a writer most of what you read influences you. The rhythms get into your head.

I'd be a dope to compare my writing with Wallace Stegner's, but that book probably influenced me in ways I didn't even realize while I was writing The Night Journal.