Longevity conquers scandal every time.

Before the war it was always the United States *are*, after the war it was the United States is... it made us an is.

The Civil War defined us as what we are and it opened us to being what we became, good and bad things... It was the crossroads of our being, and it was a hell of a crossroads.

If you want to study writing, read Dickens. That's how to study writing, or Faulkner, or D.H. Lawrence, or John Keats. They can teach you everything you need to know about writing.

People make a grievous error thinking that a list of facts is the truth. Facts are just the bare bones out of which truth is made.

When you grow up in a totally segregated society, where everybody around you believes that segregation is proper, you have a hard time. You can't believe how much it's a part of your thinking.

A university is just a group of buildings gathered around a library.

As a Southerner I would have to say that one of the main importances of the War is that Southerners have a sense of defeat which none of the rest of the country has.

I think making mistakes and discovering them for yourself is of great value, but to have someone else to point out your mistakes is a shortcut of the process.

I abhor the idea of a perfect world. It would bore me to tears.

North was only a direction indicated by a compass--if a man had one, that is, for otherwise there was no north or south or east or west; there was only the brooding desolation.

Some girls are sweeter… Others have a tinge of bitterness… It is as if I can smell their souls. Their experiences and relationships are painted in warm, sour crimson.

But I am a writer, and I deal in words, and I need to have them spelled out for me--precisely.

A country where God is not honored cannot be truly successful

Philadelphians are every whit as mediocre as their neighbors, but they seldom encourage each other in mediocrity by giving it a more agreeable name.

Welcome to my garage. This is where I go to get away from the Honey-Do list.

If you can put the question, 'Am I or am I not responsible for my acts?' then you are responsible.

You don't have to tell a child not to bully. You know, you talk at kids, they don't hear you, but when you give them a visceral experience, then they have something to remember.

I had no plans to be ever a lawyer, a crime fighter [in school].

The prestige you acquire by being able to tell your friends that you know famous men proves only that you are yourself of small account.

The more chemicals that are in our food, the more we are messing with things that we probably don't know the full effect of.