What do you tell a man with two black eyes? Nothing, he's already been told twice.

I'm very much aware in the writing of dialogue, or even in the narrative too, of a rhythm. There has to be a rhythm with it … Interviewers have said, you like jazz, don’t you? Because we can hear it in your writing. And I thought that was a compliment.

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

Avoid prologues: they can be ­annoying, especially a prologue ­following an introduction that comes after a foreword.

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.

Try not to write the parts that people skip.

I focus on characters as individuals with attitudes and write each scene from a particular character's point of view. That way, even narrative passages take on the character's sound. I don't want the reader to be aware of me, writing.