Leading economists have shown that by shrinking Texas, we can actually create more income for Texas in the long run.

Cursing dads are terrifying, you know? Cursing dads are - I don't know why, but no. It just doesn't seem to me that that would be funny. I mean it might be - you could try it and see. I suppose anybody just losing it and sputtering curses is pretty funny. But I think it would be more of a challenge, much more of a challenge, to make a cursing dad funny.

There's an idea of the Plains as the middle of nowhere, something to be contemptuous of. But it's really a heroic place.

I am an author, and like many in my profession, I am also a traveling salesman, going all over in an attempt to persuade people to spend twenty-five dollars on a hardcover book by me.

I don't want to collect Indian art, though pots and beadwork and blankets made by Indians remain the most beautiful art objects in the American West, in my opinion.

Siberia is so big, it’s almost more an idea than a place

I only saw one English-speaking person all the way across Siberia.