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

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.

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

I can't say that I've changed anybody's life, ever, and that's the real work of the world, if you want a better society.

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

What I learned on the road. Above all else - to love my native land.

I did stories about unexpected encounters, back roads, small towns and ordinary folk, sometimes doing something a little extraordinary.