I realized that I was writing about folks with lots of skills, especially fix-it skills and survival skills, who were nonetheless not doing well in the new-millennium America.

Donkeys are the most misunderstood and abused animals around the world.

I think by writing about a place with great specificity, you manage to make it universal.

I worked probably fewer jobs than most people, or fewer real soul-killing jobs than other people. I've been a typist, a typesetter, a keyliner, cappuccino-maker. I think I've been pretty lucky.

My donkeys are Jack and Don Quixote. They're very smart, very cautious. Much of what people consider stubbornness in donkeys is actually cautiousness.

As a writer, I can live somewhat independently, occupying nooks and crannies and finding meaning there. I can even live in my mind a good portion of most days.

A mathematical proof is beautiful, but when you're finished, it's really only about one thing. A story can be about many things.

That's where I live, a junkyard in a neighborhood of junkyards. We have three tractors from the 1940s and '50s, several old pickup trucks, and a pile of scrap metal.

I have a second-degree black belt in Okinawan kobudo weapons training.

Time is never wasted coming to an old man bar.

I grew up with donkeys, as well as horses, but I'm more interested in donkeys.

The selfish and self-centered have a hard time being kind, even though you and I know that kindness is a source of relief to the soul.

Even before we met and long after we're both gone, my heart lives inside of yours. I'm forever and ever in love with you.

The inevitable slip of time weighted on a man's soul.

A person’s true nature, true self, cannot change with situations.It is totally consistent.

The only principle of Success in Life :"You must be present to win.

Be grateful for everything. The good, the bad, the ugly. Our entire life is a precious gift. It’s all part of our path.

Instead of convincing people who are opposed to your message, spend your time finding people who are already predisposed to it.

We must not seek happiness in peace, but in conflict.

A man is like a bit of Labrador spar, which has no luster as you turn it in your hand, until you come to a particular angle; then it shows deep and beautiful colors.

Turn the clock to zero, honey, we're starting up a brand new day.