I could tell you which writer's rhythms I am imitating. It's not exactly plagiarism, it's falling in love with good language and trying to imitate it.

I much preferred the peaceful life on the road, where I didn't have to ask embarrassing questions and do all the things real reporters have to do.

I wasn't a very discriminating reader. I read just about everything that came along.

The storytelling tradition that you bring from the South, I don't know where it arose, but it's still there. You can't go to the feed store, or the country courthouse without running into storytellers.

You know, most reporters can't go back to the towns they wrote stories about. I never wrote that kind of story.

I was on the high school track team, believe it or not, and played baseball, poorly but passionately.

TV critics, who traditionally hate television and make their living writing about it, often didn't like what I did on the air.