But the hearts of small children are delicate organs. A cruel beginning in this world can twist them into curious shapes.

This fear is one of the horrors of an author's life. Where does work come from? What chance, what small episode will start the chain of creation? I once wrote a story about a writer who could not write anymore, and my friend Tennessee Williams said, 'How could you dare write that story, it's the most frightening work I have ever read.' I was pretty well sunk while I was writing it.

It was better to be in a jail where you could bang the walls than in a jail you could not see.

Coming down was the hardest part of any climbing.

The human heart is a lonely hunter-but the search for us southerners is more anguished.

Some men are heroes by nature in that they will give all that is in them without regard to the effort or to the personal returns.

When a person knows and can't make the others understand, what does he do?