I began writing seriously in my mid-20s and didnt publish my first book until I was 41.

Honey, Maggie Jones said. Victoria. Listen to me. You're here now. This is where you are.

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.

Fame isn't healthy for a writer.

You have to believe in yourself despite the evidence.

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.

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