You're only good if you can do bad and decide not to.

I started reading literature at 17 or 18, and I felt this extra beat to life.

Some idiotic things are well worth doing.

It's been my habit of mind, over these years, to understand that every situation in which human beings are involved can be turned on its head. Everything someone assures me to be true might not be. Every pillar of belief the world rests on may or may not be about to explode. Most things don't stay the way they are very long. Knowing this, however, has not made me cynical. Cynical means believing that good isn't possible; and I know for a fact that good is. I simply take nothing for granted and try to be ready for the change that's soon to come.

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.

What was our life like? I almost don't remember now. Though I remember it, the space of time it occupied. And I remember it fondly.

Some people want to be bank presidents. Other people want to rob banks.