I know I'm tired of thinking about what I should have done yesterday. I know I'm just tired. If I knew what to do with my life, how to fix it up, I would have done it a long time ago. You can't dig that? You think I want to live like I'm somebody's throwaway?

I admired the work ethic of the cowboys I read about. The idea of these young people taking on this much responsibility was impressive. I would like modern readers to have an appreciation of this.

It's a hard life sometimes and the biggest temptation is to let how hard it is be an excuse to weaken

I want young people to be hesitant to glorify war and to demand of their leaders justification for the sacrifices they ask of our citizens.

And I see the - you know, when I go to the juvenile detention centers and prisons, I see people who can't read now. And I know that when they leave those prisons and those detention centers, they're not going to be able to make it in our society.

Writers do not write what they know. They write what they can imagine.

Violence was just as much about WHAT was happening as it was how it happened.