I'm a member and preacher to that church where the blind don't see and the lame don't walk and what's dead stays that way.

I am interested in making up a good case for distortion, as I am coming to believe it is the only way to make people see.

There's a certain grain of stupidity that the writer of fiction can hardly do without, and this is the quality of having to stare, of not getting the point at once. The longer you look at one object, the more of the world you see in it; and it's well to remember that the serious fiction writer always writes about the whole world.

When using dialect, use it lightly. A dialect word here and there is enough. All you want to do is suggest. Never let it call attention to itself.

Fiction is about everything human and we are made out of dust, and if you scorn getting yourself dusty, then you shouldn't try to write fiction. It's not a grand enough job for you.

When she told a story, she rolled her eyes and waved her head and was very dramatic.

The two worst sins of bad taste in fiction are pornography and sentimentality. One is too much sex and the other too much sentiment.