It seems to me nothing man has done or built on this land is an improvement over what was here before.

Fame isn't healthy for a writer.

My desire is to be anonymous, isolated, quiet, peaceful, and concentrated.

Here was this man Tom Guthrie in Holt standing at the back window in the kitchen of his house smoking cigarettes and looking out over the back lot where the sun was just coming up.

It seems to me nothing man has done or built on this land is an improvement over what was here before.

After finishing the first draft, I work for as long as it takes (for two or three weeks, most often) to rework that first draft on a computer. Usually that involves expansion: filling in and adding to, but trying not to lose the spontaneous, direct sound. I use that first draft as a touchstone to make sure everything else in that section has the same sound, the same tone and impression of spontaneity.

This country's crazy in terms of fame and what people think it means. They expect a writer to be something between a Hollywood starlet and the village idiot.