I don't travel and tell stories, because that's not the way these days. But I write my books to be read aloud, and I think of myself in that oral tradition.

I think of myself... as a troubadour, a village storyteller, the guy in the shadows of the campfire.

I start with a character and a situation, but I don't know what's going to happen until I write it. Sometimes things happen that surprise me.

I'm actually writing history. It isn't what you'd call big history. I don't write about presidents and generals... I write about the man who was ranching, the man who was mining, the man who was opening up the country.

Well, I think everything I've ever read contributes to the background from which I write.

I think I write in a fairly self-confident manner.