To me there is no such thing as creative writing. It's either good writing, whatever the subject, or it's not creative.

Many Southern writers must have learned the art of storytelling from listening to oral tales. I did. It gave me the knowledge that the simplest incident can make a story.

Influence is a very tenuous matter. I try to avoid it in every respect. I don't want to be influenced by anybody.

I was not a writer to begin with; I was a listener.

I'm not interested in plots. I'm interested only in the characterization of people and what they do.

You don't love Buck. If you did, you'd have four kids by now. Wouldn't you? Now wouldn't you? A woman like you...

People are seen through the stained glass window of our imagination. ( "The hidden sides of his character" )

Whatever you do, let it be done with profound love.

Worry is a state of mind based on fear.

I wish you luck,' she said, kissing him on the cheek. He still had the most beautiful eyes of any boy she'd ever seen. But now her heart beat so much faster for someone else.

Historically, usury was defined as any interest whatever on an unproductive loan.Our whole banking system I have ever abhorred, I continue to abhor, and I shall die abhorring.

A just society is a society that if you knew everything about it, you'd be willing to enter it in a random place.

At some point in the journey of being in it for yourself, you realize you need other people. Any good frontier story, in some respect, is about that.

You think my kids just popped out of the ground?

Flirting with death is the spice of life.

I think even in American schools, they must be studying in a specialized manner.