A boy wrote me once to say that he loved it when the news from Lake Wobegon came on the radio because it meant that his parents stopped arguing. That was an eye-opener for me. You work hard to polish your act and then you find out that it does people good in ways you couldn't predict.

You don't have to justify a beautiful stroke of good luck. Accept it. Smile and say thank you.

I'm of an age when if I started to do eulogies, I'd be doing nothing else. You don't want to be remembered? I don't want them to be told to remember me.

If you lived today as if it were your last, you'd buy up a box of rockets and fire them all off, wouldn't you?

There was a price to be paid for being interested in fiction and in writing, pushing my family away. Books and authors became my family.

I don't have a great eye for detail. I leave blanks in all of my stories. I leave out all detail, which leaves the reader to fill in something better.

Powdermilk biscuits: Heavens, theyre tasty and expeditious! Theyre made from whole wheat, to give shy persons the strength to get up and do what needs to be done