The best time to tell your story is when you have to tell your story. When it's not really a choice. But then, when you get that first, messy, complicated version down, you have to read it over and be very tough on yourself and ask, 'Well what's the story here?' If you're lucky enough to have someone you trust looking over your shoulder, he or she can help you if [you] lack perspective on your own story.

It's the Joshua tree's struggle that gives it its beauty.

Horses were never wrong. They always did what they did for a reason, and it was up to you to figure it out.

I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire. It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes.

It's really not that hard to put food on the table if that's what you decide to do.

You didn't need a college degree to become one of the people who knew what was really going on. If you paid attention, you could pick things up on your own.

Don't you make fun of me or my children! Some babies are premature. Mine were all postmature. That's why they're so smart. Their brains had longer to develop.