It is sort of weird being honored for the worst day of your life.

Americans are incredibly polite as long as they get what they want.

I took two fiction-writing courses in college and majored in literature. I felt that I had a knack though I wouldn't go so far as to call it a talent. But it scared me. I felt it was a childish thing wanting to write and that I would forget about it eventually.

It is sort of weird being honored for the worst day of your life.

I think I was lucky to come of age in a place and time - the American South in the 1960s and '70s - when the machine hadn't completely taken over life. The natural world was still the world, and machines - TV, telephone, cars - were still more or less ancillary, and computers were unheard of in everyday life.

Late bloomer' is another way of saying 'slow learner.

If you could figure out how to live with family then you'd gone a long way toward finding your peace.