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

Long Gone is the type of book that should come with a warning. It’s a compulsively readable, highly addictive story. The ending will leave you breathless.

I think that people do things for a reason - that we have mental illness, that we have genetic wiring that can get triggered by certain environmental factors.

You can take my heart, but I can't let you take my dog.

I am a bit of a Dudley Do-Gooder, though, because if I see a car accident or something bad happen, I am one of those idiots who runs toward the problem instead of away from it. Not that I would recommend this behavior.

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

Books are not like albums, where you can simply download and enjoy your favorite chapter and ignore the rest.