My Mother Thought Of My Father As

The Most Powerful Words In English Are 'tell Me A Story,' Words That Are Intimately Related To The Complexity Of History, The Origins Of Language, The Continuity Of The Species, The Taproot Of Our Humanity, Our Singularity, And Art Itself. I Was Born Into The Century In Which Novels Lost Their Stories, Poems Their Rhymes, Paintings Their Form, And Music Its Beauty, But That Does Not Mean I Had To Like That Trend Or Go Along With It. I Fight Against These Movements With Every Book I Write.

A Recipe Is A Story That Ends With A Good Meal.

... The Wing Of A Fly Is Proof Enough Of The Existence Of God For Me.

Love Had Always Issued Out Of The Places That Hurt The Most.

...when The Words Pour Out Of You Just Right, You Understand That These Sentences Are All Part Of A River Flowing Out Of Your Own Distant, Hidden Ranges, And All Words Become The Dissolving Snow That Feeds Your Mountain Streams Forever. The Language Locks Itself In The Icy Slopes Of Our Own High Passes, And It Is Up To Us, The Writers, To Melt The Glaciers Within Us. When These Glaciers Break Off, We Get To Call Them Novels, The Changelings Of Our Burning Spirits, Our Life's Work.