Humility is not a virtue in a writer, it is an absolute necessity.

But the participants [in war] never forgot the details of their experience, and like the Wandering Jew, they were condemned to remain their own history books, each containing a story they could not pass on to others and from which no one would learn anything of value.

One day you'll have a quiet heart.

I used to save all my rejection slips because I told myself, one day I'm going to autograph these and auction them. And then I lost the box.

Louisiana is a fresh-air mental asylum.

And every good artist knows that the gift comes from somewhere else, and it's there for a reason, and that's to make the world a better place.

THE ALLURE OF Montana is like a commitment to a narcotic; you can never use it up or get enough of it. Its wilderness areas probably resemble the earth on the first day of creation.