I prize the Depression, for instance, because I learned the value of things in the Depression that a way people who don't have to worry about such things never learned to prize it really, I believe.

A fact is not a truth until you love it.

I abhor the idea of a perfect world. It would bore me to tears.

Most of my inspiration, if that's the word, came from books themselves.

The Civil War defined us as what we are and it opened us to being what we became, good and bad things... It was the crossroads of our being, and it was a hell of a crossroads.

Longevity conquers scandal every time.

I think making mistakes and discovering them for yourself is of great value, but to have someone else to point out your mistakes is a shortcut of the process.