I'd be a conservative if I'd never met any. They're selfish, mean-spirited, egocentric, reactionary, and boring.

To describe our growing up in the lowcountry of South Carolina, I would have to take you to the marsh on a spring day, flush the great blue heron from its silent occupation, scatter marsh hens as we sink to our knees in mud, open an oyster with a pocketknife and feed it to you from the shell and say, 'There. That taste. That's the taste of my childhood.'

There are no ideas in the South, just barbecue.

I was born and raised on a Carolina sea island and I carried the sunshine of the low-country, inked in dark gold, on my back and shoulders.

There is no teacher more discriminating or transforming than loss.

One can learn anything, anything at all, I thought, if provided by a gifted and passionate teacher.

I've never cackled with laughter at a single line I've ever written. None of it has given me pleasure.