When the peacock has presented his back, the spectator will usually begin to walk around him to get a front view; but the peacock will continue to turn so that no front view is possible. The thing to do then is to stand still and wait until it pleases him to turn. When it suits him, the peacock will face you. Then you will see in a green-bronze arch around him a galaxy of gazing, haloed suns.

Writing is a good example of self-abandonment. I never completely forget myself except when I am writing and I am never more completely myself than when I am writing.

I have what passes for an education in this day and time, but I am not deceived by it.

... the main concern of the fiction writer is with mystery as it is incarnated in human life.

It's always wrong of course to say that you can't do this or you can't do that in fiction. You can do anything you can get away with, but nobody has ever gotten away with much.

Good and evil appear to be joined in every culture at the spine.

Tennessee's a hillbilly dumping ground, and Georgia's a lousy state too.