I love the writers in Austin. We stick together. We all like each other and go to each other's book signings in case no one else shows up.

It took me ten years to write The Night Journal, so that was a big ordeal.

I love Austin. It's great here. I don't mind the heat.

I grew up thirty miles down the highway in San Marcos, and I've still got family there, so I guess I'm pretty well rooted.

When Larry Wright won the Pulitzer for The Looming Tower we all strutted around for weeks, until some sourpuss among us noted that it was actually Larry, and not the rest of us, who won the prize.

I'd be a dope to compare my writing with Wallace Stegner's, but that book probably influenced me in ways I didn't even realize while I was writing The Night Journal.

I got hooked on TV westerns back in the early sixties when I was about five, mostly because my brother was addicted to them and wouldn't let me watch anything else.

It seems like the Western genre has crept out of its casings during the last few years, and expanded to include books and movies we wouldn't originally have thought of as westerns.

The defining aspects of westerns are still pretty much in place - namely landscape and conflict. In other books the conflict can be internal, but in westerns it usually plays out on a big stage.

I think when you're a writer most of what you read influences you. The rhythms get into your head.

In middle school I wrote a paper on Hemingway and none of the sentences had more than five words.

16th century advertisements cannot market 21st century products. Look for what is necessary at the present moment.

The purpose of the Kingdom is the essence of life

Our job is to make others feel better and to find happiness. It will ultimately make you happy and abundant.

As an advisor, I can say what I want. If I were a politician, I would constantly have to compromise, and I'm incapable of doing that.

Everything big-budget or stereotypical I was offered after 'Slumdog Millionaire' was a huge no-no.

Don't give us your doubts, gives us your certainties, for we have doubts enough of our own.

But I guess everything in life is a bit disappointing, isn't it?

Make sure your heart is singing right until the day it stops.

Don’t get hung up on the female thing. The art is not about that.

Today is the best day I could ever have.