I once saw Dizzy Gillespie at a live show, and it made me want to go home immediately and start writing.

I don't have any of the modern stuff. I don't have e-mail. I don't have a computer!

I try to leave out the parts readers skip.

Never open a book with weather. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways to describe ice and snow than an Eskimo, you can do all the weather reporting you want.

If work was a good thing, the rich would have it all and not let you do it.

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can't allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative.

Not dreams but night changes, not destiny but path changes, always keep your hopes alive, luck may or may not change, but time definitely chages.