A true Southerner will never say in 2-3 words what can better be said in 10-12.

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

Most of those old settlers told it like it was, rough and rocky. They named their towns Rimrock, Rough Rock, Round Rock, and Wide Ruins, Skull Valley, Bitter Springs, Wolf Hole, Tombstone. It's a tough country. The names of Arizona towns tell you all you need to know.

It is liberalism, whether people like it or not, which has animated all the years of my life. What on Earth did conservatism ever accomplish for our country?

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.

America is a great story and there is a river on every page of it.

I had a tight stomach all the time. I actually developed ulcers. I've learned better than to put all that internal pressure on myself.