People just make stupid mistakes. And they keep making them and keep making them, and suddenly they can't dig themselves out.

Talking of the local Sheriff, Jake Valentine, tall and skinny and his wife Myra, "She was a short woman, maybe five feet tall in her socks, the top of her head not quite reaching Jake's chest. What she lacked in height she made up for in girth. Jeffrey guessed she was at least a hundred pounds overweight. Standing side by side, the Valentines looked like the living embodiment of the number ten.

It really sucks getting older. Sometimes I'll be walking along and I'll just glance over my shoulder to make sure nothing has fallen off.

Keeping libraries open, giving access to all children to all books is vital to our nation's sovereignty.

I have a few unusual fans, as you can imagine, so I try to protect the privacy of my home life.

Reading develops cognitive skills. It trains our minds to think critically and to question what you are told. This is why dictators censor or ban books. It's why it was illegal to teach slaves to read. It's why girls in developing countries have acid thrown in their faces when they walk to school.

Like every Southern writer, I thought that I needed to write the next Gone With the Wind.