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.

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.

Longevity conquers scandal every time.

Without pain there is no future or any hope to get better in your life.

Devote yourself to prayer.

Yessir, some things is sin 'cause God says so. Some things is sin 'cause they hurt other people. And some things is just pure-dee stupid.

I can't help thinking that caring possibly is the riskiest enterprise known to man. But how stop caring?

I must have got my detailed, obsessive streak from my father, who was an English teacher, because my mother wasn't like me at all.

I'm a big believer in persistence, don't be greedy and, above all, work hard. It's what keeps me going.

Baseball is one of the most beautiful games. It is. It is a very Zen-like game.

I believe that most of us would like to be thought well of by horses.

The female struggle implies the black struggle, it implies the struggle with anti-Semitism, it implies all of the other struggles. That is the only possible way to think about human liberation.

At YC we have this public phrase, and it's relentlessly resourceful.