My characters never die screaming in rage. They attempt to pull themselves back together and go on. And that's basically a conservative view of life.

Americans took a great deal too much credit for creating wealth, when most of the time they had really just been living off natural bounty unprecedented in the history of the world.

I say, when your hair turns gray and your children think they know who you are, do the thing that shakes up who you think you are, even who you had prided yourself on being. When all those around you say they simply don't recognize you any longer, that's the real compliment.

Ignorance and bloodlust have a long tradition in the United States, especially in the red states.

Take naps. Often new ideas come together when you are half asleep, but you have to train yourself to remember them.

How will you know a good farmer when you meet him? He will not ask you for any favors.

The only siblings I have are half-siblings. My nuclear family would have been an extra-suffocating threesome. Instead, I have an interesting brother and sister, in-laws, and darling nephews.