I once received a letter from an old lady in California who informed me that when the tired reader comes home at night, he wishes to read something that will lift up his heart. And it seems her heart had not been lifted up by anything of mine she had read. I think that if her heart had been in the right place, it would have been lifted up.

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

The novelist is required to open his eyes on the world around him and look. If what he sees is not highly edifying, he is still required to look. Then he is required to reproduce, with words, what he sees.

Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to never was there, and where you are is no good unless you can get away from it

Remember that you don't write a story because you have an idea but because you have a believable character.

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

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