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

Since my retirement, I've spent a lot of time trying to help the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina. A society like this just can't afford an uneducated underclass of citizens.

Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything.

If there are bleachers in heaven and a warm sun, that's where you'll find Bill Veeck.

I had a little insight into life that most kids probably didn't have. My mother was a schoolteacher, and my father was a social worker. Through his eyes I saw the underside of society.

I didn't like the competitiveness of big-time journalism.

I suppose I was a little bit of what would be called today a nerd. I didn't have girlfriends, and really I wasn't a very social boy.