I wanted to become the seeker, the aroused and passionate explorer, and it was better to go at it knowing nothing at all, always choosing the unmarked bottle, always choosing your own unproven method, armed with nothing but faith and a belief in astonishment.

But no one walks out of his family without reprisals: a family is too disciplined an army to offer compassion to its deserters.

I was the only person in the world who thought it was a military duty to appear to be in a good mood.

I learned that if I could read, I could cook. I surprised myself I like it.

The University of South Carolina has always played a role in my life and the intellectual life of South Carolina.

I don’t know why it is that I have always been happier thinking of somewhere I have been or wanted to go, than where I am at the time. I find it difficult to be happy in the present.

(You) don't leave the chicken to watch the feed.