I always intended to be light and open. I misjudged the American audience.

The alcohol had the code and mystery about it as a writer's drug, but I'm glad that's been debunked. But the trouble with the drinking, much as I hate to admit it, is it helped the work.

Professional Southerners sicken me.

I hate to be fatalistic about it, but alcoholism, it's just in your genes. We had some of it in my family, and it just got me.

Voice comes to you through a spell, a trance. The best voices are not you... they're a little away from you.

What a bog and labyrinth the human essence is... We are all overbrained and overemotioned.

Children will listen to anything elders say to survive, and if you grew up without an elder telling you there was a god, what did your parents say to you?