I know my Agnes and only live to love her.

I have a mother back there in Illinois who is old and feeble. I haven't seen her this many a year and haven't been a good son to her, yet I love her better than anything in this life.

I have never insulted man or woman in my life, but if you knew what a wholesome regard I have for damn liars and rascals, they would be liable to keep out of my way.

I never, in all my life, took any mean advantage of an enemy.

I guess I'm happy that I'm getting the attention. Otherwise, I'd just be playing in a local bar in front of my family members, and I'm sure they'd get sick of that in no time.

I think a big part of what has helped me move forward with the sport is my family. We're all so close together, and the support system has been amazing.

Successive generations of middle-class parents used to foist their own favourite books on their children. But some time in the late Eighties it began to wane - not because children had lost interest in adorable animals but because most of it was available on useful, pacifying video.

The public library my parents took me to in Fort Worth had the children's section next to the SF/F section, so I was reading adult SF/F at a very young age.