Good writing of course requires talent, and no one can teach you to have talent.

I don't need new boots I got bluchers back down home. Eff the effing bluchers I'll buy you new adjectival effing elastic sided boots.

People do not love those whose eyes show that they are somewhere else

Nostalgia is something we think of as fuzzy. But it's pain. Pain concerning the past.

Writers, at least writers of fiction, are always full of anxiety and worry.

I don't separate my books into historical novels and the rest. To me, they're all made-up worlds, and both kinds are borne out of curiosity, some investigation into the past.

Swimming always cleans your soul