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.

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.

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.

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.

The whole banquet is in the first spoonful.

It was time to bring out the world destructive weapons. It was now time to hit him where it would do the biggest damage, his pride.

Fame makes you feel permanently like a girl walking past construction workers.

To me, the most poetic and intelligent way to bring up a subject is by showing very simply who you are and what you believe in.

Every ethnic group thinks they are the chosen ones.

Some people say that they read the first 20 pages, and then decide if they want to do the film or not. But, I have to read the entire thing cause anything can change in a script.

There is nothing in life so difficult that it cannot be overcome. This faith can move mountains. It can change people. It can change the world. You can survive all the great storms in your life

I have a real aversion to sentimentality, but I also really want to write about love and friendship.

When you hear buzz around the beehive, you know they're making honey in there.