Writer

Michigan is two radically different places - the North and the South which makes for good drama and contrast.

I've always been intemperate in my affection for food.

There's something frightening about finding a woman who would take your heart.

Other than fishing and a little bird-hunting, all I do is write.

I see more genuine sociability between the races in Mississippi than I see in Michigan. No question.

If I can't be fishing or hunting, I want to be in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

I admit to occasionally sharing the financial hysteria of the rest of the country, the urgency to save more for the family in case you can't write any more.

You can't be unhappy in the middle of a big, beautiful river.

I used to get criticized for putting food in novels.

We pretend that the brain is binary, like a computer. But it's not. It's completely holographic.

Marriage is survived just on the basis of ordinary etiquette, day in and day out. Also cooking together helps a lot... I've seen all these marriages that failed. Those people are always hollering at each other. That doesn't work.

I do mourn my characters. I wrote an essay once where I was sure that far back in a marsh there was a hummock - a little hill of hardwoods - and an old farm house, where all the heroines in my novels lived together with all my beloved dead dogs. I've discussed this with my therapist, naturally. He says it's okay in fair amounts.

I'm outdoors a lot, so I get dark. Guess who gets stopped? I've been pulled over, and they ask, 'Where are you from?' I say, 'Montana.' They say, 'Are you sure? And I say, 'I'm reasonably sure I'm from Montana, but you know, this is a dream life.' You start on this shtick with them and it's fun.

I don't see gender as the most significant fact of human existence.

Because most writers have totally unrealistic concepts of how publishing works.

Writing as a woman presents enormous problems but I have attempted it several times and haven't had many complaints.

After a lifetime of world travel I've been fascinated that those in the third world don't have the same perception of reality that we do.

You have to temporarily be the character in order to understand him. It's sort of what they used to call 'shape-shifting.'

There aren't any real dumb people in my voices. It's always irritated me about Hollywood dialogue - there's so much dialogue that would just bore a Ford mechanic. This is not how people talk.

I should add that I very much enjoy certain cities especially Paris, New York and Chicago.