Accepting oneself does not preclude an attempt to become better.

I suppose half of writing is overcoming the revulsion you feel when you sit down to it.

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

When you can state the theme of a story, when you can separate it from the story itself, then you can be sure the story is not a very good one.

There is something in us, as storytellers and as listeners to stories, that demands the redemptive act, that demands that what falls at least be offered the chance to be restored.

Conviction without experience makes for harshness.

I have found, in short, from reading my own writing, that my subject in fiction is the action of grace in territory largely held by the devil. I have also found that what I write is read by an audience which puts little stock either in grace or the devil. You discover your audience at the same time and in the same way that you discover your subject, but it is an added blow.