Purity strikes me as the most mysterious of the virtues and the more I think about it the less I know about it.

I spend three hours a day writing and the rest of my day getting over it.

Elizabeth Hardwick told me once that all her first drafts sounded as if a chicken had written them. So do mine for the most part.

The life you save may very well be your own.

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.

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

... the man in the violent situation reveals those qualities least dispensable in his personality, those qualities which are all he will have to take into eternity with him.