Perhaps when we die our names are takenfrom us by a divine magnet and are freeto flutter here and there within the bodies of birds.I'll be a simple crowwho can reach the top of Antelope Butte.(From: Hard Times)

I had let my digust with teaching ruin my love of literature.

I asked a French critic a couple of years ago why my books did so well in France. He said it was because in my novels people both act and think. I got a kick out of that.

I thought, frankly, that it would be more pleasant to write a memoir than it was.

The fact is, the media never gets off the interstate unless there's a major explosion.

I write novellas because I don't like loose sprawling prose.

I couldn't run a tight schedule, and if you're any good at teaching, you get sucked dry because you like your students and you're trying to help them, but you don't have any time left to write yourself.