I did take one drawing class in school, but for this book I spent a lot of time talking to painters and asking them silly questions.

I knew the basic outline of the novel [The Dissemblers] and would write whatever scene of the book I felt particularly excited about at the time.

I lived in New Mexico until I was seventeen, and honestly I've been homesick ever since I left.

I do think that it is one of the eternal questions about art, though - is all art intrinsically selfish?

Does art play a role in the greater good of society, or does it just promote the satisfaction of the artist? I go back and forth on that question.

The motivation to paint seems more pure, or at least more personal, when the artist is doing it for herself.

I've spent many a day worrying that I will never be able to write again!

I am a tragically bad artist.

I read letters and journal entries by [Georgia] O'Keeffe (which were infinitely more useful than any critical analysis of her work).

The book [The Dissemblers] officially came out two weeks after my thirtieth birthday...am I still young?

One thing that was inspiring to me in my research about [Georgia] O'Keeffe was to learn that in addition to her success she had very hard times, and times when she was frustrated and uninspired.

The deeds and motive of man define his personality.

Because we are human. We adapt, we adjust, and we think too damn much.

..her smile, which was her pretty feature, was never so pretty as when her sprightly phrase had a scratch lurking in it.

We refuse to put guards on duty, we would rather pray for God’s protection.

Some out of their own virtue make a god who sometimes later is a nuisance to them, a terror perhaps to them, a difficult thing to be forgetting.

It's a real pleasure to go to work when you're in the most extraordinary surroundings, and working with people who are young and interested and creatively keen.

I reached a point in my life where I didn't really like who I was.I was married to an amazing woman. I had children, and yet there was frustration.

Women do not dress specifically for men or against other women. They dress for their subconscious.

I got completely fed up with that Hollywood blockbuster mentality. I couldn't take it seriously any longer.

The Lord delights in every little step you take.