(Mrs. Peterson) gave me the confidence.

I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I'll die like a poet.

We're slowly building confidence, we know we have it in us, we just need to get it out.

It is adventurous. The boy loves dogs and I love dogs.

I like drifting off into books. It is fun to discover how it will end.

I never had any doubts about my abilities. I knew I could write. I just had to figure out how to eat while doing this.

[Cormac McCarthy's Venomous Fiction, New York Times, April 19, 1992]