It don't do you no nevermind to tell nobody nothing.

Literature is the ditch I'm going to die in. It's still the thing I care most about.

We both liked children; we just didn't want any ourselves. There were children everywhere, and we saw no reason to start our own brand. Young couples plunge into parenthood and about half the time they end up with some ghastly problem on their hands. We thought we'd leave that to others.

They were unironic enthusiasts for all the mass pleasures the culture offered: television, NASCAR, cruises, Disney World, sports, celebrity gossip, and local politics. Szabo often wished that he could be as well adjusted as Melinda's family, but he would have had to be medicated to pursue her list of pleasures.

Giving freaks a pass is the oldest tradition in Montana.

It's funny but... you're sort of a moving target for fortune and you never know when it will befall you.

After fifty years of living it occurs to me that the most significant thing that people do is go to work whether it is to go to work on their novel or at the assembly plant or fixing somebody's teeth.