When things don't go well, it helps to think of yourself as a genius and the rest of the world as a bunch of idiots.

There's not some finite amount of pain inside us. Our bodies and minds just keep manufacturing more of it.

I don't really distinguish between sympathy and honesty when I'm writing. The two go together - I'm interested in inhabiting my characters, seeing the world through their eyes.

It's not the cheating. It's the hunger for an alternative. The refusal to accept unhappiness.

If anything, he seemed a little lonely, all too ready to open his heart at the slightest sign of interst.

Safe from the Neighbors is a novel of unusual richness and depth, one that's as wise about the small shocks within a marriage as it is about the troubled history of Mississippi. Steve Yarbrough is a formidably talented novelist, shuttling between the past and present with a grace that feels effortless.

Apparently even the most awful tragedies, and the people they'd ruined, got a little stale after a while.