Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one.

There won't be any biographies of me because, for only one reason, lives spent between the house and the chicken yard do not make exciting copy.

There is no excuse for anyone to write fiction for public consumption unless he has been called to do so by the presence of a gift. It is the nature of fiction not to be good for much unless it is good in itself.

Every morning between 9 and 12 I go to my room and sit before a piece of paper. Many times, I just sit for three hours with no ideas coming to me. But I know one thing. If an idea does come between 9 and 12 I am there ready for it.

She felt that she would have to be much more than just a doctor or an engineer. She would have to be a saint.

Ours is the first age in history which has asked the child what he would tolerate learning.

The Southerner is usually tolerant of those weaknesses that proceed from innocence.