When poetry is on the money, 12 words can slay you. I admire that greatly.

I've bumped into at least three people in town who all insist 'Winter's Bone' is about them.

There's an overlap between social-realist fiction and crime fiction - a sweet spot there.

I know people who have, until recently, lived with dirt floors. There are people who live way back off the grid, without electricity. Not a whole lot, but quite a few. That's a choice for a lot of them. There might be a religious element in their isolation, at least with some of them.

I don't think I can write a book as nihilistic as some of my early ones. They're so bleak. I don't think I would enjoy that as much anymore. You really become fixated on ways out.

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