Thoughts, And Words That Spring From Them,

The Highest Praise A Writer Can Give Another Is To Say He Wishes He Had Written His Book. I Wish I Had Written Forty Words For Sorrow. Giles Blunt Has A Tremendous Talent. If You Miss Forty Words For Sorrow, You'll Miss One Of Best Novels Of 2001.

A Writer Is Like A Bag Lady Going Through Life With A Sack And A Pointed Stick Collecting Stuff.

Having Grown Up In Oklahoma When It Was One Of The Last States Which Prohibited Liquor, I Grew Up With War On Drugs, Where Every Teenager Knew Who The Bootleggers Were

From Where We Stand The Rain Seems Random. If We Could Stand Somewhere Else, We Would See The Order In It.

Although I Wasnt Able To Get A Visa For Vietnam, I Was Able To Talk With Swift Boat Veterans To Get A Feel For The Time And Place, And I Visited A Tropical Prison In The Philippines To Get A Sense Of What A Vietnamese Prison Might Have Been Like.