Even the largest of my dreams and ambitions, I realize with increasing dismay, were puny, measly, compared to the object of my dreaming. I would not say my life to date has been built overmuch of compromise, but still, it surrounds me.

Fiction is harder for me than nonfiction - more gratifying, as a result, when it succeeds.

The mountains have always been here, and in them, the bears.

I don't think I'm a natural novelist. Plot is definitely one of my weaker points. I've been working on it a long time, and it's not getting much better.

I've heard it said that when you die you enter a room of bright light, and that you can smell bread baking just around the corner.

To not pursue the thing one wants would be a waste of one's life.

Nothing will get you into trouble so deep or as sad as faith.