After 'The Poisonwood Bible' was published, several people believed that my parents were missionaries, which could not be further from the truth.

I rarely think of poetry as something I make happen; it is more accurate to say that it happens to me. Like a summer storm, a house afire, or the coincidence of both on the same day.

Literature sucks you into another psyche. So the creation of empathy necessarily influences how you'll behave to other people.

It's one thing to carry your life wherever you go. Another thing to always go looking for it somewhere else.

Ah, the mysterious croak. Here today, gone tomorrow. It's the best reason I can think of to throw open the blinds and risk belief. Right now, this minute, time to move out into the grief and glory. High tide.

Pure and unblemished souls must taste very bland, with an aftertaste of bitterness.

Beginning a novel is always hard. It feels like going nowhere. I always have to write at least 100 pages that go into the trashcan before it finally begins to work. It's discouraging, but necessary to write those pages. I try to consider them pages -100 to zero of the novel.