Nobody but a Southerner knows the wrenching rinsing sadness of the cities of the North.

Bourbon does for me what the piece of cake did for Proust.

You live in a deranged age, more deranged than usual because in spite of great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing.

Where there is chance of gain, there is also chance of loss. Whenever one courts great happiness, one also risks malaise.

To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be onto something.

In this world goodness is destined to be defeated. But a man must go down fighting. That is the victory. To do anything less is to be less than a man.

We love those who know the worst of us and don't turn their face away.

I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?

In a word, the consumer of mass culture is lonely, not only lonely, but spiritually impoverished.

Fiction doesn’t tell us something we don’t know, it tells us something we know but don’t know that we know.

Lucky is the man who does not secretly believe that every possibility is open to him.

And what was I if not death's ghostwriter?

It seemed incredible that this day, a day without warnings or omens, might be that of my implacable death.

You had better be ready to change your mind when needed.

America focuses on being very intelligent because that's how you make more money.

Hostesses who entertain much must make up their parties as ministers make up their cabinets, on grounds other than personal liking.

Remember this: you can have justice, or you can have two dollars. But you can t have both.

What you can do with a short story that you can't do with a novel is punch someone in the gut, in the best of ways.

Oh, Hazel is awesome," Don Said. "She's so nice! All the other campers are like 'Go away Don.' But she's like 'Please go away, Don.' I love her!

Even in 2012, if there's a black character in the movies or on television that's a professional, if we even hear about their backgrounds they're always 'up from the streets.

I am thrilled to be an Olympian, and I think that although we will be underdogs we can beat many teams and will be a surprise in Sydney.