We love those who know the worst of us and don't turn their face away.

Suppose you ask God for a miracle and God says yes, very well. How do you live the rest of your life?

I don't like to be described as a Southern writer. The danger is, if you're described as a Southern writer, you might be thought of as someone who writes about a picturesque local scene like Uncle Tom's Cabin, Gone With the Wind, something like that.

For the world is broken, sundered, busted down the middle, self ripped from self and man pasted back together as mythical monster, half angel, half beast, but no man...Some day a man will walk into my office as a ghost or beast or ghost-beast and walk out as a man, which is to say sovereign wanderer, lordly exile, worker and waiter and watcher.

I couldn't stand it. I still can't stand it. I can't stand the way things are. I cannot tolerate this age.

Jews wait for the Lord, Protestants sing hymns to him, Catholics say mass and eat him.

A novel is what you call something that won't sell if you call it poems or short stories.