I've never felt influenced by Ernest Hemingway though I suppose there is something inevitable there.

When we were children we were errant enough to wish to be birds for the day but there's nothing easier to lose than playfulness.

Dad said I would always be "high minded and low waged" from reading too much Ralph Waldo Emerson. Maybe he was right.

Birthdays are ghost bounty hunters that track you down to ask, "Que pasa, baby?

I see more genuine sociability between the races in Mississippi than I see in Michigan. No question.

I couldn't run a tight schedule, and if you're any good at teaching, you get sucked dry because you like your students and you're trying to help them, but you don't have any time left to write yourself.

No one else can hold your hand or take this voyage of the soul for you.