What 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.

In all my stories and novels, no one ever escapes Louisiana. Maybe that is because my soul never left Louisiana, although my body did go to California.

"You going back," she said. "You ain't going to run away from this, Grant."

We wait till now? Now, when we're old men, we get to be brave?

I knew I wanted to be a writer and I knew if I had a wife and family, I would neglect something, and I was afraid it wouldn't be the writing.

There will always be men struggling to change, and there will always be those who are controlled by the past.

A myth is an old lie that people believe in. White people believe that they're better than anyone else on earth - and that's a myth.