In one deep sense, novels are concealed autobiography. I don't mean that you are telling facts about yourself, but you are trying to find out what you really think or who you are.

I've been to a lot of places and done a lot of things, but writing was always first. It's a kind of pain I can't do without.

[A]nd soon now we shall go out of the house and go into the convulsion of the world, out of history into history and the awful responsibility of Time.

We are the prisoners of history. Or are we?

Storytelling and copulation are the two chief forms of amusement in the South. They're inexpensive and easy to procure.

For the truth is a terrible thing.

You don’t choose a story, it chooses you.