I think that's what I love about writing, is the ability to try to, in a sense, take a vacation from yourself and try to enter the sensibility of another time, another character, another place.

Like Flannery O'Connor, McCorkle's genius is to give us both philosophical speculation and a riveting narrative filled with unforgettable characters. Great writing, poignancy, humor, wisdom-all are in abundance here. Jill McCorkle is one of the South's greatest writers; she is also one of America's.

I think that's what I love about writing, is the ability to try to, in a sense, take a vacation from yourself and try to enter the sensibility of another time, another character, another place.

A small profit is better than a big loss.

A place where something so terrible had happened shouldn't continue to exist in the world

It's a hard place this world can be. No wonder a baby cries coming in to it. Tears from the start

We had some good times at school. I didn't know how good those times were until I left, but I guess that's the way of it