Sometimes you got to hurt something to help something. Sometimes you have to plow under one thing in order for something else to grow.
Ernest GainesWhat I miss today more than anything else - I don't go to church as much anymore - but that old-time religion, that old singing, that old praying which I love so much. That is the great strength of my being, of my writing.
Ernest GainesThe sharecropper may lower his eyes, but not because he's less of a man. That's just a condition of society that such things exist.
Ernest GainesAll writers write about the past, and I try to make it come alive so you can see what happened.
Ernest GainesYou learn from music, from watching great athletes at work - how disciplined they are, how they move. You learn these things by watching a shortstop at work, how he concentrates on one thing at a time. You learn from classic music, from the blues and jazz, from bluegrass. From all this, you learn how to sustain a great line without bringing in unnecessary words.
Ernest Gaines