Living frugally is one of the best things an author can do to prepare for their career.

some things are better off back in the past. Where they belong.

My only wish is that we leave room for hope. There is good and bad in all things. We find what we expect to find. We see what we expect to see. I have learned that if I tilt my head just right and squint, the world outside is beautiful. The future is bright. There are good things to come.

Statistics were magic like this: they could tell you with near-certainty that a thing would occur, without a hint of when or where.

Sometimes a thing needed opening before closure was found.

My life is too tight, he wanted to say. My skin is too tight. The walls are too tight.

He’d only ever seen a gun once, a smaller one on the hip of that old deputy, a gun he’d always figured was more for show. He stuffed a fistful of deadly rounds in his pocket, thinking how each one could end an individual life, and understanding why such things were forbidden. Killing a man should be harder than waving a length of pipe in their direction. It should take long enough for one’s conscience to get in the way.