You know how advice is. You only want it if it agrees with what you wanted to do anyway.

A water snake glided smoothly up the pool, twisting its periscope head from side to side; and it swam the length of the pool and came to the legs of a motionless heron that stood in the shadows. A silent head and beak lanced down and plucked it out by the head, and the beak swallowed the little snake while its tail waved frantically.

Fella in business got to lie an' cheat, but he calls it somepin else. That's what's important. You go steal that tire an' you're a thief, but he tried to steal your four dollars for a busted tire. They call that sound business.

A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.

Any man of reasonable intelligence can make money if that's what he wants. Mostly it's women or clothes or admiration he really wants and they deflect him.

Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world

In writing, habit seems to be a much stronger force than either willpower or inspiration.