Today I must write a paragraph or a page better than I did yesterday.

I had to see and feel and be with the thing that I wanted to write about.

You've got to bend with the wind or you're broken.

I want you to show them the difference between what they think you are and what you can be.

I knew I wanted to be a writer and I knew if I had a wife and family, I would neglect something, and I was afraid it wouldn't be the writing.

You learn from music, from watching great athletes at work - how disciplined they are, how they move. You learn these things by watching a shortstop at work, how he concentrates on one thing at a time. You learn from classic music, from the blues and jazz, from bluegrass. From all this, you learn how to sustain a great line without bringing in unnecessary words.

Everything's been said, but it needs saying again.