I am 82 years old. I imagine that I will keep on writing as long as anyone wants to keep reading.

The highest praise a writer can give another is to say he wishes he had written his book. I wish I had written Forty Words for Sorrow. Giles Blunt has a tremendous talent. If you miss Forty Words for Sorrow, you'll miss one of best novels of 2001.

You write for two people, yourself and your audience, who are usually better educated and at least as smart.

An author knows his landscape best; he can stand around, smell the wind, get a feel for his place.

Being Indian is not blood as much as it is culture.

I always have one or two, sometimes more, Navajo or other tribes' cultural elements in mind when I start a plot. In Thief of Time, I wanted to make readers aware of Navajo attitude toward the dead, respect for burial sites.

I always try to make the setting fit the story I have in mind.