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I loved growing up in Tulsa.

I love writing about Oklahoma. I love writing Oklahoma characters; I love playing Southwestern characters.

I've lived in Kansas for more than thirty years, and for half of those, I was part of a ranching family, so I'm writing about things I know and love.

I like Oklahoma. It's a quiet place. You can work, and nobody disturbs you.

What unites Oklahomans today is what has always united us: Our unshakable faith. Our love of family and compassion for others. The unlimited promise of a hopeful future.

Growing up in Oklahoma the way I did, and being raised the way I was raised by my parents, gave me such a strong foundation to go out into the world and fly, so to speak, the way I was able to do.

I can clearly trace my passion for reading back to the Jonesboro, Georgia, library, where, for the first time in my life, I had access to what seemed like an unlimited supply of books.

Oklahoma's always been good to me.

The thing is, the Tulsa experience that I wrote about in 'The Outsiders' is closer to the universal experience than it would be if I wrote it from L.A. or New York. It's an everyman story.

The history of my state of Oklahoma offers a great example of pursuing the American Dream. It was built and settled by pioneers moving West to seek better lives.