To die is nothing. One is here, one is no longer here. It is only at the end one must be able to say 'I was a man'.

If you write a book set in the past about something that happened east of the Mississippi, it's a 'historical novel.' If you write about something that took place west of the Mississippi, it's a 'Western'- and somehow regarded as a lesser work. I write historical novels about the frontier.

Trade is much superior to piracy. You can rob and kill a man but once, but you can cheat him again and again.

What is today accepted as truth will tomorrow prove to be only amusing.

A writer's brain is like a magician's hat. If you're going to get anything out of it, you have to put something in it first.

Any man can shoot a gun, and with practice he can draw fast and shoot accurately, but that makes no difference. What counts is how you stand up when somebody is shooting back at you.

There have always been hard times. There have always been wars and troubles