A novelist has two lives-- a reading and writing life, and a lived life. he or she cannot be understood at all apart from this.

The one thing ... maybe no family could tolerate was things coming out into the open.

I learned why 'out riding alone' is an oxymoron: An equestrian is never alone, is always sensing the other being, the mysterious but also understandable living being that is the horse.

Art doesn't exist if you just do what you're told. It only exists as an exercise of individual taste and freedom.

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.

Vets do what doctors used to - diagnose the injury or the condition, patch it up as best they can and remind you that these things happen and that in life we are also in the midst of death.

An urban novelist never minds a little decay.