He realized now he was only just beginning to see the full extent to which it was his destiny to follow, to walk blindly into fates he could never understand. In fate there was reward, in turning over one's heart to God there was a magnificence that lay beyond description. At the moment one is sure that all is lost, look at what is gained!

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

The love between humans is the thing that nails us to the earth.

Well, I always say that the two things I was most disastrous at in my life, being a teenager and being a wife, were the two things I really wound up cashing in on when I was writing fluffy magazine pieces.

You can't be a jerk in order to be a good writer.

I could teach. I could wait tables. I could cook in a restaurant. Food and teaching were the two skills I had.

I always feel it is a shortcoming of mine as a reader and as a writer that I frankly need to like somebody.