I saw how many people were poor and how many kids my age went to school hungry in the morning, which I don't think most of my contemporaries in racially segregated schools in the South thought very much about at the time.

The first books I was interested in were all about baseball. But I can't think of one single book that changed my life in any way.

The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines.

Good teachers know how to bring out the best in students.

I believe that writing is derivative. I think good writing comes from good reading.

There is such a thing as a national conscience, and it can be touched.

We always take credit for the good and attribute the bad to fortune.