In many ways, being honest about 'Huckleberry Finn' goes right to the heart of whether we can be honest about our heritage and our identity as Americans.

Gossip. The more you talk about why people do things, the more ideas you have about how the world works.

There is something I have noticed about desire, that it opens the eyes and strikes them blind at the same time.

Because your goal is a complete rough draft of a novel, and every rough draft, by being complete, is perfect.

Even if my marriage is falling apart and my children are unhappy, there is still a part of me that says, 'God, this is fascinating!'

I discovered that the horse is life itself, a metaphor but also an example of life's mystery and unpredictability, of life's generosity and beauty, a worthy object of repeated and ever changing contemplation.

Mom was a smoker. My grandfather was a smoker. My aunts were smokers. My uncles were smokers. I don't know any smokers now, not even my mom.