"Walter Kirn" is an American novelist, literary criticism/literary critic, and essayist. He is the author of eight books, most notably Up in the Air (novel)/Up in the Air, which was made into a movie starring George Clooney, and Blood Will Out (memoir)/Blood Will Out, a memoir of his friendship with the imposter and convicted murderer, Christian Gerhartsreiter/Clark Rockefeller.

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I wasn't above having thoughts of God's wrath.

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They don't understand that in the West, there are many groups that have not yet made their peace with the rest of America. . . . People came to the West to be left alone, as the Mormons did. The West continues to be an experimental American culture.

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Because she was very upset and I was trying to do the gentlemanly thing.

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[Most writers' view of the New West is] either phony - obsessed with the same tired mythology - or it's obsessed with anti-mythology, ... There's not a lot of realistic, observant writing about the West right now.

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A hundred and fifty years ago, this was just a continent. You could move to the borders and start a whole new country.

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Literally, while I was writing, the town eccentrics were looking over my shoulder, asking about what I was writing, listening to my explanations, offering their two cents. It had gotten around town pretty quickly that what Walter was doing inside his house could be viewed easily on a computer. I thought, 'This is more interactivity than I can stand!' But it was interesting too.

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