I have a book in the pipeline of short stories. You want to hear an agent scream, say 'I'm thinking about doing a collection of short stories set in ….

This is how sudden things happened that haunted forever..

He unscrewed the lid, set it on the dash, snorted from the bottle twice, banged the steering wheel, and said, 'You got to be ready to die every day -….

The heart makes dreams seem like ideas..

Gail had a baby named Ned who was four months old, and a new look of baffled hurt, a left-behind sadness, like she saw that the great world kept spin….

Never. Never ask for what ought to be offered..

For a long time, I thought you could remain isolated and survive, and I didn't want to change that. But over the last three or four books, I've becom….

Pine trees with low limbs spread over fresh snow made a stronger vault for the spirit than pews and pulpits ever could..

Fading light buttered the ridges until shadows licked them clean and they were lost to nightfall..

It's not always to the benefit of the story to have it so preordained..

The opening novel of the 'Bayou Trilogy' was the first one I finished..

I always loved the verve and vivacity of pulp and I kind of merged it with my own interest in family stories..

Ree, brunette and sixteen, with milk skin and abrupt green eyes, stood bare-armed in a fluttering yellowed dress, face to the wind, her cheeks redden….

But I've been at writing long enough now to know that every three or four books I have to start a new direction..

There's an overlap between social-realist fiction and crime fiction - a sweet spot there..

I've bumped into at least three people in town who all insist 'Winter's Bone' is about them..

I was not much used to women except for mothers. Everything I did, they did different..

I'm not one of these people who thinks everyone born into privilege should wear sack cloth and ashes. But it's something I wrestle with. I know a lot….

I, myself, often wished to be spared the expectation of better days ahead or such..

A person has to show some spirit -- fate just about never shines on chickenshits..

I felt like a number of things in me as a writer just clicked..