I have a hunger for justice, but art is a place I've always enjoyed being able to be free - to live in worlds that you don't have to be thinking about that all the time. I don't see myself writing Upton Sinclair books. My books are to entertain, although to me, entertainment is to make you feel sadness or to get in touch with your own pain - or fear, or to remember somebody who has gone missing from your life. That's my calling.

Human beings are selfish by nature. Everything that happens to a child, you immediately grab your own child and say, "I will never let that happen to you."

I grew up around some people whose parents toured a lot: tough on the marriage, tough on the kids.

The South actually has a very strong tradition of activism. The civil rights movement came from down here! It was black activists demanding that their voices be heard. People say these are red states. No they're not!

One way you can get really close to God is to sin as hard as you can.

From a very young age, I was the kind of kid you can just put anywhere and I'd still find stuff to be stoked about.

When you punish a person for dreaming his dream, don't expect him to thank or forgive you.