Writing is the thing that props me up.

I’ve known people that the world has thrown everything at to discourage them...to break their spirit. And yet something about them retains a dignity. They face life and don’t ask quarters.

I'm a social writer in the sense that I want to record, but not in the sense of trying to change people's minds.

If I ever teach writing again, I’d say the first lesson is to listen.

I come out of a strong oral tradition in the South.

Writing is the thing that props me up.

But I don't really write to honor the past. I write to investigate, to try to figure out what happened and why it happened, knowing I'll never really know. I think all the writers that I admire have this same desire, the desire to bring order out of chaos.