I was starting to wonder if I was ready to be a writer, not someone who won prizes, got published and was given the time and space to work, but someone who wrote as a course of life. Maybe writing wouldn't have any rewards. Maybe the salvation I would gain through work would only be emotional and intellectual. Wouldn't that be enough, to be a waitress who found an hour or two hidden in every day to write?

Updike and Bellow and Roth were my three favorite writers when I was young and throughout my life.

Coming back is the thing that enables you to see how all the dots in your life are connected.

I will go and speak at rotary clubs. I will go and speak at schools. I'm so much in the community, but in a way that I love. It's been such a positive thing.

Never be so focused on what you're looking for that you overlook the thing you actually find.

The thing you can count on in life is that Tennessee will always be scorching hot in August.

That's important to me, to recommend books.