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.

Anyone who survives a southern childhood has enough material to last a lifetime.

If you don't hunt it down and kill it, it will hunt you down and kill you.

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

I don't deserve any credit for turning the other cheek as my tongue is always in it.

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.

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.