I like terrific writing, but I also like a terrific story. My favorite books have both, and they're by contemporary, commercial American writers.

Some Native American writers enjoy being called Native American writers.

Before there were books, we read each other.

The author is at one end of the experience of writing and the reader is at the other, and the book is the contract between you.

The orator yields to the inspiration of a transient occasion, and speaks to the mob, before him, to those who can hear him; but the writer, whose more equable life is his crowd which inspire the orator, speaks to the intellect and heart of mankind, to all in any age who can understand him.

Read a thousand books, and your words will flow like a river.