People want to know why the South is so interested in the Civil War. I had maybe, it's a rough guess, about fifty fistfights in my life. Out of those fifty fistfights, the ones that I had the most vivid memory of were the ones I lost. I think that's one reason why the South remembers the war more than the North does.

I used to write sonnets and various things, and moved from there into writing prose, which, incidentally, is a lot more interesting than poetry, including the rhythms of prose.

But the same thing was true in the army. You slept in a barracks with all kinds of people of every nationality, every trade, every character and quality you can imagine, and that was a good experience.

If you want to study writing, read Dickens

People make a grievous error thinking that a list of facts is the truth. Facts are just the bare bones out of which truth is made.

A combination of all that was best in the gladdest days of the departing year.

And I really do think that the difficulty of research makes it more real to you than punching a thing to find out how many men were killed at this particular action.