David Guterson

I often heard about his cases and I often sat in on his trials. In the late 1960s when I was growing up I wanted to be a crusader like him but I didn't want to wear a suit and commute. ”

It doesn't matter who you are, how many awards you've won, how popular you are, or how much critical acclaim you've had. ”

Hemingway said the only way to write about a place is to leave it. ”

Even though I may not intend it when I set out to write the book, these places just emerge as major players in what I'm doing, almost as if they are insisting on it. ”

At one level you're condemned to the voice you have. But within those confines, you have a certain amount of freedom to range among your possible voices. ”

There's a certain nostalgia and romance in a place you left. ”

I was aware that there is an expectation that writers inevitably falter at this stage, that they fail to live up to the promise of their first successful book, that the next book never pleases the way the prior one did. It simply increased my sense of being challenged. ”

I think you have an obligation to share what you know as a writer. ”

Don Quixote is one that comes to mind in comparison to mine, in that they both involve journeys undertaken by older men. That is unusual, because generally the hero of a journey story is very young. ”

When it comes time to sit down and write the next book, you're deathly afraid that you're not up to the task. That was certainly the case with me after Snow Falling on Cedars. ”