I think of myself as something of a connoisseur of procrastination, creative and dogged in my approach to not getting things done.

Orchid hunting is a mortal occupation.

Living in a rural setting exposes you to so many marvelous things - the natural world and the particular texture of small-town life, and the exhilarating experience of open space.

You have to simply love writing, and you have to remind yourself often that you love it.

Libraries are what is best about us as a society: open, exciting, rich, informative, free, inclusive, engaging.

One of the very best reasons for having children is to be reminded of the incomparable joys of a snow day.

A snow day literally and figuratively falls from the sky, unbidden, and seems like a thing of wonder.

An ordinary life examined closely reveals itself to be exquisite and complicated and exceptional, somehow managing to be both heroic and plain.

There's a marvelous sense of mastery that comes with writing a sentence that sounds exactly as you want it to.

Even after I'd published three books and had been writing full-time for twenty years, my father continued to urge me to go to law school.

I don't like hiking with convicts carrying machetes.

How could you be sad, when you can sing?

I'm really not a fascist. Everyone wears what they feel great in, or comfortable with. It's a beautiful day, you have an armless shirt: it goes with flip-flops.

The people are fashioned according to the example of their kings; and edicts are of less power than the life of their ruler.

Reduce the number of lawyers. They are like beavers - they get in the middle of the stream and dam it up.

Porridge and the urban lifestyle don't mix well.

Christianity was from the beginning, essentially and fundamentally, life's nausea and disgust with life, merely concealed behind, masked by, dressed up as, faith in "another" or "better" life.

John Lee Hooker became a friend of mine and I love all of his work. He was truly an icon. He lived the life. I miss him.

We only came up with the Kaiser Chiefs about a year and a half ago when we scrapped every song we'd ever done. It was a complete change of direction, songs, outlook and everything.

If you play to win as I do, the game never ends.

I love football so when I finish playing I would like to still be involved in it somehow and a ­manager would be my first choice.