...I have to write to discover what I am doing. Like the old lady, I don't know so well what I think until I see what I say; then I have to say it again.

Being a Georgia author is a rather specious dignity, on the same order as, for the pig, being a Talmadge ham.

Dogma is the guardian of mystery. The doctrines are spiritually significant in ways that we cannot fathom.

I will rejoice the day when they say: This is right whether we all rot on top of each other or not, dear children, as we certainly may. Either practice restraint or be prepared for crowding.

Poorly written novels--no matter how pious and edifying the behavior of the characters--are not good in themselves and are therefore not really edifying.

It is always difficult to get across to people who are not professional writers that a talent to write does not mean a talent to write anything at all.

... the novelist is bound by the reasonable possibilities, not the probabilities, of his culture.