Growing up, I didn't know anybody who didn't have a miner in the family. Both of my grandfathers were miners.

William Faulkner, Muriel Spark, Richard Yates, William Styron, James Salter, Alice Munro. They're very different writers, and I admire them for different reasons. The common thread, I guess, is that they remind me what's possible, why I wanted to write fiction in the first place.

I believed, after writing 'Mrs. Kimble,' that I knew how to write a novel. I quickly discovered that I only knew how to write that novel. 'Baker Towers' was a different beast entirely; and I felt as though I had to learn to write all over again.

I have written my whole life. I remember writing as a small child.

I have a statement on the Social Security. A lot of people approaching that age have either already retired on pensions or have made irreversible plans to retire very soon... I consider it a breach of faith to renege on that promise. It is a rotten thing to do.

I just want people to know out there no matter what they've done, God doesn't judge us on how many sins. God is there for us. He loves us. He wants us to turn it over to Him.

Faith is not a rational thing, and yet to understand the universe, rationality alone will not give it to us. Our understanding of the universe must transcend the rational.

I'm not a religious person, and I'm not too interested in being a part of a religion, but I do like having some sort of communal gathering, and having some sense of peoples.