I try to make my books reflect humanity as I see it.

A writer is like a bag lady going through life with a sack and a pointed stick collecting stuff.

Having grown up in Oklahoma when it was one of the last states which prohibited liquor, I grew up with War On Drugs, where every teenager knew who the bootleggers were

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

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.

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.