Is there a design in the events of our lives? Or do things just happen, much like a junk yard falling down a staircase? If it's the latter, how do you deal with it?

Then the sun broke above the crest of the hills and the entire countryside looked soaked in blood, the arroyos deep in shadow, the cones of dead volcanoes stark and biscuit-colored against the sky. I could smell pinion trees, wet sage, woodsmoke, cattle in the pastures, and creek water that had melted from snow. I could smell the way the country probably was when it was only a dream in the mind of God.

There's no substitute for loyalty.

We all end up in the same place. Some sonner than others.

Neither our own passing nor the passing of an era is a tragedy, no matter how much we would like to think it is.

Success, like fashion, is a fickle companion and can leave one in the wink of an eye.

The best thing about being a best-selling writer is being a best-selling writer. More seriously, today I can write full time and pay the bills.