I've never cackled with laughter at a single line I've ever written. None of it has given me pleasure.

Without music, life is a journey through a desert.

It's impossible to explain to a Yankee what 'tacky' is. They simply have no word for it up north, but my God, do they ever need one.

I was born and raised on a Carolina sea island and I carried the sunshine of the low-country, inked in dark gold, on my back and shoulders.

I’ve never had anyone’s approval, so I’ve learned to live without it.

The most powerful words in English are, 'Tell me a story.'

Here is all I ask of a book- give me everything. Everything, and don't leave out a single word.

I stood face to face with the moon and the ocean and the future that spread out with all its bewildering immensity before me.

Good writing ... involves the agony of turning profoundly difficult thoughts into lucid form, then forcing them into the tight-fitting uniform of language, making them visible and clear.

There is no teacher more discriminating or transforming than loss.

The great teachers fill you up with hope and shower you with a thousand reasons to embrace all aspects of life.

To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man.

I can see that the sadness has returned. And it's not a beautiful sadness- beautiful sadness is a myth. Sadness turns our features to clay, not porcelain.

Friendship begins with a word.

Our job is...To listen more than we speak.To follow more than we lead.To love more than we receive.To forgive more than we've been forgiven.To remember more than we forget.

And now, I'm thinking again, isn't there something we can do about something we can't do anything about?

Weather in towns is like a skylark in a counting-house-out of place and in the way.

I began to realise that we are all oppressed which is why I would like to do something about it, though I'm not sure where my place is.

Intolerance has always been one of the cornerstones of Christianity - the glorious heritage of the Inquisition.

A place is yours when you know where all the roads go.

What's bad for the country is always good for The Nation.