I asked a French critic a couple of years ago why my books did so well in France. He said it was because in my novels people both act and think. I got a kick out of that.

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

Wherever we go we do harm, forgiving ourselves as wheels do cement for wearing each other out. We set this house on fire, forgetting that we live within. (from "To a Meadowlark," for M.L. Smoker)

The simple act of opening a bottle of wine has brought more happiness to the human race than all the collective governments in the history of earth

The old fun thing is when somebody typed up the first chapter of War and Peace. And then made a precis of the rest of it and sent it out and only one publisher recognized it.

The danger of civilization, of course, is that you will piss away your life on nonsense.

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