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.

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.

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

If you want to study writing, read Dickens

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.

I've never shown anybody a draft of anything.

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.