Some people flinch when you talk about art in the context of the needs of society thinking you are introducing something far too common for a discussion of art. Why should art have a purpose and a use? Art shouldn't be concerned with purpose and reason and need, they say. These are improper. But from the very beginning, it seems to me, stories have indeed been meant to be enjoyed, to appeal to that part of us which enjoys good form and good shape and good sound.

Poetry and slave trading cannot be bedfellows. That's where I stand.

A pen on paper is the ideal way for me. I am not really very comfortable with machines; I never learned to type very well.

We live in a sea of general ideas, so that's not a novel, since there are so many general ideas. But the moment a particular idea is linked to a character, it's like an engine moves it. Then you have a novel underway.

The Novelist As Teacher”: “I would be quite satisfied if my novels (especially the ones I set in the past) did no more than teach my readers that their past – with all its imperfections – was not one long night of savagery from which the first Europeans acting on God’s behalf delivered them.

When old people speak it is not because of the sweetness of words in our mouths; it is because we see something which you do not see.

The rural areas have been deprived by the cities in the past. Development resources and energy should be directed where the people live.