A writer’s life is in his work, and that is the place to find him.

My writing is often a way of 'bearing witness' for others who lack the education and the opportunity to tell their own stories, so I hope that my writing won't be affected too much by my personal life.

I was brought up to be sympathetic toward others.

I come from people who did not go to college. They didn't even finish high school. People who one might call ordinary Americans who are very hardworking.

I was writing novels in high school and apprenticed myself in a way both to Faulkner and to Hemingway.

The great happiness in life in creativity belongs to amateurs.

Society is the picnic certain individuals leave early, the party they fail to enjoy, the musical comedy they find not worth the price of admission.