I had gone to enlist in the Navy, but they had a long waiting list and no need for high-school dropouts.

As a high-school drop-out, I knew I wanted to write, but I wasn't overly confident that I was going to be writing anything serious. I was happy enough with the idea that I could be a penny-a-word guy and survive.

For a long time, I didn't think I wanted to live in the Ozarks or write about the region. It seemed to be a sure recipe for obscurity, and to be obscure was not my conscious ambition.

I started drama in high school.

There has been a lot of student interest and parent interest. We have a waiting list for our introductory course we will be teaching in the fall.

I learned my values. It's better to be poor than to be beholden. Wealth is not the object of life. You should be polite as long as possible, and when you can't be polite anymore, don't run.