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

IF you are not for yourself, who will be for you? If you are only for yourself, what are you? If not now, when?

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.

The essays in The Great Taos Bank Robbery were my project to win a Master of Arts degree in English when I quit being a newspaper editor and went back to college.

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

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

The first Chapter Law is, "Don't spend much time on it. You're going to have to rewrite it."