You can’t control what other people think about your art. Think about the part of yourself that you can control, which is your ability to be kind and loving and creative.

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.

Home, bed, sleep, mother--who knew more beautiful words than these?

That was the way things worked. When you were looking for the big fight, the moment that you thought would knock everything over, nothing much happened at all.

For a man to know what he has when he had it, that is what makes him a fortunate man.

When well told, a story captured the subtle movement of change. If a novel was a map of a country, a story was the bright silver pin that marked the crossroads.

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