As a writer, I can live somewhat independently, occupying nooks and crannies and finding meaning there. I can even live in my mind a good portion of ….

The truth is I tried to write for years and I wasn't very good..

After a year, it was great to get out of L.A. and return to Hyde Park. Since my grandparents lived in Hyde Park, I had been coming there since I was ….

My donkeys are Jack and Don Quixote. They're very smart, very cautious. Much of what people consider stubbornness in donkeys is actually cautiousness..

Weirdly the writing experience has not really changed that much except it used to be that I was busy because I had to work a couple of jobs to earn m….

I love investigating the natural world, and I find a lot of truths there, truths about survival and beauty - nature continually surprises me (amazing….

For 'King Cole's American Salvage,' I rode around in the wrecker with a local driver and watched him deal with customers and hook up the cars. I watc….

When I was little, we lived on 8 acres and my mom had a horse. But when I was 7, my mom kicked my dad out, and then in order to feed us five kids, sh….

Where I live you're not supposed to shoot a firearm within a quarter mile of a dwelling..

I like to go where the life is..

I loved writing for the school newspaper. I liked to report and interview people, but I really liked to write columns, funny columns..

I grew up with donkeys, as well as horses, but I'm more interested in donkeys..

We know that we need to explore desire in fiction - many say that the only way a story exists is that a character feels a strong desire - and nature ….

I have a second-degree black belt in Okinawan kobudo weapons training..

Mostly the natural landscapes work as a sounding board for my characters, so they can understand themselves, and it acts as a mirror in which we read….

A mathematical proof is beautiful, but when you're finished, it's really only about one thing. A story can be about many things..

You can't beat a good sonnet, and you can write a sonnet without being married to the damned thing..

I do different work, teaching and running around visiting universities and bookstores, and that prevents me from writing. But it's nice to be wanted ….

I worked probably fewer jobs than most people, or fewer real soul-killing jobs than other people. I've been a typist, a typesetter, a keyliner, cappu….

Any of us who listen to the news or listen to stories our neighbors tell are accustomed to violence. We have to decide then to ignore the violence an….

In fact, when I finally realized I was really going to write, when I was about thirty-four, I was working on my Ph.D. in Mathematics. I was just abou….