Fear and hope are alike underneath.

Marry somebody you love and who thinks you being a writer's a good idea.

America beats on you so hard the whole time. You are constantly being pummeled by other people's rights and their sense of patriotism.

Any rainy summer morning, of course, has the seeds of gloomy alienation sown in. But a rainy summer morning far from home - when your personal clouds don't move but hang - can easily produce the feeling of the world as seen from the grave. This I know.

I grew up in Mississippi being told it was a great place, but not feeling that. When I finally began reading seriously, literature showed me something about where I was from which was worthwhile.

I don't want to be taken to Bhutan and smell the flowers. I want to be told something I couldn't have been told any other way.

Americans don't have saner gun laws because most Americans, including those citizens who puzzle over better angels, don't want saner gun laws.